back to article Space Jam: stripped bolt bugs spacewalkers

If you messed up a do-it-yourself job around your home over the weekend, you're in good company: a new power switching unit at the International Space Station has had to be tethered and left partly-fitted, after a jammed bolt led to the spacewalking electricians abandoning their installation attempt. The spacewalk was …

COMMENTS

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  1. jake Silver badge

    Araldite's ...

    ... in t'second drawer, luv.

  2. Robert Heffernan
    Headmaster

    Bolts eh?

    While i am aware bolts are the workhorse of the fastening industry world wide and nothing will ever supplant them, it makes me wonder why they are used in this case?

    I would think those "T" shaped pins that are pushed through a slot/hole combination, turned 90 degrees to fasten into a slight resess to capture the protruding pin would have been a better fit for this purpose. It would drastically cut down on EVA time as installation and removal take only seconds, are just as secure as bolts and more forgiving of alignment issues. You often find them made from plastic in some childrens toys that require basic assembly.

    1. jake Silver badge

      Re: Bolts eh?

      You mean Dzus fasteners? Not a good idea for the temperature extremes seen in space ...

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Bolts eh?

      Perhaps you should be emailing NASA - I'm sure they have a department eager to respond to informed suggestions like yours

  3. Sureo
    Facepalm

    They ought to pack a roll of duct tape for times like this.

    1. Captain DaFt

      Or at least a can of WD-40! Regular can, *not* the spray cans!

      1. Darryl
        Pint

        Obligatory toolbox essentials comment

        If it moves and it's not supposed to - Duct Tape

        If it doesn't move and it's supposed to - WD-40

        The pint is, of course, for afterwards to celebrate a job well done.

        1. jake Silver badge

          Re: Obligatory toolbox essentials comment

          You forgot the bailing wire and chewing gum.

          1. Christoph
            Boffin

            Re: Obligatory toolbox essentials comment

            "I always carry a Swiss Army Knife and a coil of wire"

            -- Agatha Heterodyne

            1. TeeCee Gold badge
              Headmaster

              Re: Obligatory toolbox essentials comment

              Can't let that pass.

              That's a line given to Agatha in the Heterodynamic Radio Theatre play; "Revenge of the Weasel Queen", not a direct quote.

              1. Christoph

                Re: Obligatory toolbox essentials comment

                OK, it's not a direct quote from a fictional character, it's a direct quote from a fictional version of that fictional character ...

        2. bazza Silver badge

          Re: Obligatory toolbox essentials comment

          Question is, do they have beer of any sort on the space station? I'm not holding out much hope that they've got anything that CAMRA would approve of.

          1. Toastan Buttar
            Pint

            Re: CAMRA

            ...unless it's the CAMpaign for Relativistic Ale.

          2. Stoneshop
            Pint

            Re: Obligatory toolbox essentials comment

            Question is, do they have beer of any sort on the space station?

            If I'm not mistaken, there's whisky (in the making) on board at the moment.

        3. GitMeMyShootinIrons

          Re: Obligatory toolbox essentials comment

          And don't forget - if it leaks, copious amounts of silicon sealant.

        4. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Obligatory toolbox essentials comment

          No WD40 in space, pretty sure it would freeze to everything it touched...

        5. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Obligatory toolbox essentials comment

          I'm from Birmingham and if it's stuck we 'its it wiv an ommer.

          Wats an ommer?

          Anyfing big enuff to 'it fings wiv

          An' doan talk to me about zero gravity, you shouldda sin this place yesterday.

    2. This post has been deleted by its author

  4. Robert E A Harvey
    Coat

    Natural consequence

    of trying to work in gloves

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Cap'n!

    I'll haf t' reroute the power through the secondary conduits and back to the transporter module!

    You'll haf to be quick though, or we'll burn through the dilithium crystals!

  6. Frumious Bandersnatch

    So they can't secure the payload?

    Sounds like a job for an inanimate carbon rod to me.

    1. Random K
      Coffee/keyboard

      Re: So they can't secure the payload?

      You owe me a keyboard sir/madam!

  7. Sceptic Tank Silver badge
    Alien

    Some nut out there...

    Loose bolts can be a costly exercise. Not too long ago one of the reactors at our one & only nuclear power plant was damaged beyond repair because someone had neglected to apply a spanner properly and a loose bolt fell into the works.

    Them astronauts.... If they waited long enough, that bag of space tools from one of the previous missions would have orbited by and they could have just grabbed a shifting spanner from there*.

    <<< I hope all the bolts on Mars are securely fitted. (I.e., work was not done by my local mechanic).

    * It may have "de-orbited" by now (I.e. fallen to the ground in pre-space-age terminology).

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Facepalm

      Re: Some nut out there...

      Sorry to be pedantic, but... That would be the GENERATOR, not the reactor. The nearest city would have been uninhabitable if the reactor had been damaged beyond repair. From what I understand, it took Areva six months to ship a new rotor due to lack of capacity to build a new one.

    2. Chris Hawkins
      Linux

      Re: Some nut out there...

      "at our one & only nuclear power plant was damaged beyond repair because someone had neglected to apply a spanner properly......"

      Homer Simpson????????

      Mr Burns is not going to be happy!

    3. Fatman
      FAIL

      Re: Some nut out there...nuclear power plant was damaged beyond repair

      Don't feel bad, you are not alone:

      http://www.tampabay.com/news/business/energy/officials-must-decide-if-crystal-river-nuclear-plant-is-needed/1249178

      A perfect example of why it is better to leave complicated repairs to the experts.

      BTW, Progress Energy was merged into Duke Energy recently. The original plan was for the Progress CEO to take the CEO position of the merged company. Look what happened to him:

      Johnson’s abrupt removal July 2, just hours after Duke closed the merger, is the subject of the probe launched July 6 by the commission and a parallel investigation started by the North Carolina attorney general. (emphasis is mine)

      source: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2012/08/08/3438059/duke-energy-submits-1900-pages.html (para # 7 under 'Early Doubts')

  8. Dave Bell

    I don't know what spec they use for the threads, but I bet they wouldn't have had the same problem with a Whitworth thread.

    1. Geoff Campbell Silver badge
      Boffin

      Thread measurement system is not relevant

      There are coarse and fine threads in metric just as much as in imperial systems.

      GJC

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Boffin

    Two words

    Plus gas

  10. TeeCee Gold badge
    Coat

    Overthinking.

    If they'd sent a couple of Kwik-fit lads, it would have been done by now.

    Sticking bolt? Air hammer with the torque limiter disabled.

    They're used to sticking bolts, after all it was them that stuck most of 'em.......

  11. Blofeld's Cat
    FAIL

    No problem...

    Just hammer a couple of shims under the nut until it feels tight and stops rattling.

    I mean if it was good enough for the first Tay Bridge ...

    1. Clive Harris

      Err.. Wasn't that the one that fell down?

      .. according to the excruciating poetry of William McGonnagall.

      Beautiful Railway Bridge of the Silv’ry Tay!

      Alas! I am very sorry to say

      That ninety lives have been taken away

      On the last Sabbath day of 1879,

      Which will be remember’d for a very long time.

      etc..etc..

      (it get even worse later)

  12. AndrueC Silver badge
    Joke

    It's only nuts 'n' bolts. Hardly rocket science.

    Oh.

  13. Simon B
    Thumb Up

    I don't suppose you can twat it with a hammer in space, can you?

  14. James 51

    NASA TV

    Just downloaded the app for my playbook, can't wait.

  15. Arachnoid
    Mushroom

    Damn send em up a variety of zip ties, they fix anything down.

  16. 0laf
    Boffin

    Just get a bigger hammer!

  17. JustWondering

    My Guess

    If the bolt won't turn then it's not stripped and if it went 9 turns I don't think it's cross threaded. probably someone's chewing gum in the hole or something

  18. Leona A
    Angel

    I guess

    its out with the 'tap and die' set then....

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