Monday, September 17, 2012

ISS Saved By Toothbrush?

On a recent EVA to replace an electrical switching unit, Astronauts Sunita Williams and Akihido Hoshide, during a marathon eight hour mission, were having difficulty getting a bolt to tighten. It became apparent that debris was clogging the bolt's receptacle enough that the bolt simply would not engage and tighten.

The initial reaction is to simply clean the bolt hole, but what makes this situation troublesome is that the astronauts did not have any tools capable of doing the job included in their kits.

Consulting with engineers on the ground, Williams and Hoshide fashioned a cleaning tool out of a toothbrush, a metal rod and tape. (the picture at the top of this article shows the tool)

There is more info on NASA and Wired - click the article for the Wired


6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'll bet they were fans of "The Red Green Show"!

kallamis said...

Well well well. Someone at NASA has experience like mine. Shade tree mechanics of the country folk. Also called MacGyvering. Make something work with what you have.
Should have seen some of the crap I pulled when I was a drifter to get my vehicle up and running.

kallamis said...

And two off questions for you people. The first is this; Where is the podcast this week?

#2 Anyone know of a decent homepage that isn't yahoo. Since igoogle is shutting down, not sure where else there is a decent homepage. MSN and I had a falling out ages ago because I got tired of having to sign in every time I went there. Is there a decent page besides yahoo?

Beam Me Up said...

Anon!
Now it was my turn to completely lose it! Red Green show! Perfect call!

Beam Me Up said...

Kall, yep, that is what my brother calls me! Not so much for problem solving, but hacking junk together for alternative purposes, or the constant "oh hey I can fix that with this this and this! Sometimes it gets a bit nutty but it is certainly fun!

Beam Me Up said...

Yeah, what is UP with that? The logic is that it is no longer needed? By who? That certainly doesn't apply to me!