Last week while a astronauts were repairing a faulty bearing on on of the solar panels lose a 100K tool bag it drifted out of reach before the astronaut noticed it ever though the tool bag is still orbiting the Earth two bright meteors have already been observed. So keep a eye out there may be more as tools drift out of the bag.

I find it hard to believe that they train for that long and with that much intensity to do a precise and dedicated job and can't seem to secure a tool bag insitu. A large spring carabiner comes to mind. Is this the duh factor?
Really? You put the entire mission at risk if you lose the tools to do the job.
Acts like that don't inspire confidence. Where is Story Musgrave when we need him?

Errr, this thread is a tad late:

A tool box falling from the space

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http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7736996.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7744207.stm

"Oh Great!", Heidemarie (fourteen seconds...into footage)

edit: why do i have this fixation, that this should be in 'exploration'?
i mean what is off-topic about space flight?

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Mak: Pass the pepperoni please.

Fazor: "Hail, Bautainia! We pledge our hearts to thee! Science and woo, some babbling too, and astron-oh-meee!"

I wonder how many of these tools, nuts and bolts drifted out of the bag and are still slowly falling towards Earth. We can call them Nasateors.

Well, it seems trivial, but it is hard to cope with momentum on a space walk.

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I suggest becoming a follower of the Bad Astronomer. He's good at nipping such nonsense in the bud stage.

BA Blog: Canadian fireball was NOT the ISS toolbag

I suggest not crying wolf.

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Expected reentry window was one of my first questions when the story broke.
BA doesn't nail down the time frame; But, since his article was just addressing if the fireball was the kit, I guess it doesn't matter whether its weeks, months, or years.

I did find one news article that mentions it expecting reentry around June. I should have noted that at the time...

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That'd be humorous if orbiting space junk wasn't a serious (and increasing) problem. Now it seems the ISS has a semi-permanent "satellite."

The ISS is such a huge waste of $$$ and time. Let's just get on to MARS!

Part of the problem is that the grease gun in the kit had leaked all over everything in the kit, and the astronaut was trying to cope with that when the kit got away from her. I don't think a bag full of greasy tools is part of the training.
In this case, the kit was not unique. They were able to complete the work using other tool kits.

Fred

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Good point about the grease gun.

Danscope, I'm honestly surprised at your comments. Calm down, man.

I've seen you post numerous times about making your own repairs and doing tinkering, it's amazing that you can now post as if ignorant as to how things go wrong during any repair.

Wasn't it Story Musgrave who damaged the Hubble blankets with his shoe?

I may be wrong, but working in space doesn't seem that easy to me.

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Hi,
My point is that anyone with mechanical training learns to tie things off....
things like ladders, tool bags etc. Even Sgt.Preston of the mounties tied off his gun. Pretty basic to the success of a mission. Maybe they will 'learn something" from their experience. At this level, you expect competence, not rookie moves.
Best regards,
Dan

Why would the toolbox be due to deorbit? Its orbit should be as stable as the ISS's, or did it move towards or away from the earth with enough velocity to significantly change it's perigee to interface with the atmosphere in such a way as to deorbit faster than the ISS? (or does the ISS have thrusters to prevent this?) After a finite number of orbits, shouldn't the toolbox come back towards the ISS?

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It's really easy to be a Monday-morning, armchair quarterback, isn't it?

To Ara: The tool kit is a lot less dense, and a lot less massive, than the ISS, so it experiences a lot more drag from (the extremely thin) atmosphere in that orbit. So it will come down a lot faster.

ISS does have thrusters, and it usually gets a boost from the shuttle before it leaves.

Fred

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"For shame, gentlemen, pack your evidence a little better against another time."
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The missions was a success. No justification for your particular rage on that regard.

If you have never, ever, ever made a mistake under high stress situations, then you're not human.

Doug

Interstellaryellar's avatar remind me of something, but I don't know what, exactly...

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It is? I know it's small, and the bag itself is probably light, but I would think that with tool shafts of forged steel or aluminum or titanium it would still be as dense as or denser than the cylindrical segments of the ISS.

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Hi, Maybe I am over sensitive. I used to climb a 130 foot radar mast. If I dropped a wrench from that height I could kill some one.
As a carpenter, we do a good deal of climbing aloft, and we take it pretty seriously. In space, if you lose the 'only tool you have to do the job' ,
the mission fails , and the bearings fail, and the Hubble fails...etc.
This is my view, but......if even one person reads this and takes heed of this simple advice, it will have served it's purpose. Once a mechanic,...
always a mechanic.
Like I said; perhaps they should employ a snap carabiner when servicing
eva, perhaps saving the job and the mission.
The most important thing is the people . If they are safe, then all is well.
The rest can be repaired.
Best regards,
Dan