Araldite's ...
... in t'second drawer, luv.
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 …
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.
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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).
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.
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')
.. 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)