NASA's lost toolbag filmed from Earth The tool bag lost by NASA astronaut Heide Stefanyshyn-Piper during an ISS space walk has been filmed sailing over Earth by a veteran satellite observer over the weekend. SpaceWeather.com has a video recording of the backpack-sized bag's extended lesson in basic Newtonian physics made by Kevin Fetter from his backyard …
"[…] make sure everything is tried down on their remaining spacewalks."
I'd say they're trying them _up_ there in orbit...
But honestly, I'd completely hate to know how much junk we currently have drifting in orbit endangering both current and future space missions.
Mine's the one with "My buddy went to the ISS and all I got was this lousy grease-stained jacket" across the back.
How can this darn drop still be an issue? They lost a darn 100k bag, so what? Shit happens. Each and every launch costs about as much as it would take to end hunger in Africa (feel free to replace with shame of your choice). People DIE exploring space. I remember when people cared about the whole thing, and not only when another shuttle goes down. If all the excitement NASA can generate these days comes from someone dropping a greasy bag o' bolts, something is very wrong.
The builders still haven't finished your dream home. You call for a plumber, takes ages to arrive, and still can't fix the problem. Someone goes out for a walk and looses their bag. The local buses are clapped out, about to be junked, but there's no plans to buy new ones. I'm only surprised that the bag didn't also contain a laptop with NASA's entire staff details...
Mine's the one with the Shuttle Annual Pass in the pocket.
Your information is incomplete and insufficient to allow us to locate the object in question. We also need to know the RA, Dec. and precession velocity of the ascending node, as well as the time of separation and the RA and Dec. of the ISS at that time, in order to be able to track it. :)
Mine's the grease-stained one with the much thumbed ephemeris in the pocket, ta...
The magnitude measure of stars originate with the ancient Greeks, which had magnitude 1 as the brightest stars in the sky and magnitude 6 as the faintest visible with the naked eye on a clear night. Assuming equal relative decrease in brightness, an increase of 1 in magnitude roughly halves the brightness. Modern magnitudes are defined so a magnitude 6 start is 1/100th the brightness of a magnitude 1 star, which makes the decrease in brightness roughly by 2.5 per step. Also, the brightest stars may now have negative magnitude (Sirius has magnitude about -1.5).
A magnitude 8 object is about as bright as Neptune, which you do need a telescope to see.
If the shuttle were to retrieve the toolbag once it has departed from the ISS?
Surely some unscheduled canada arm work would be a good exercise...
afterall they dont shut the cargo bay until re-entry...
mind you, just because the toolbag cost 100K doesn't mean its worth it!
"Anybody care to place a wager {By Anonymous Coward Posted Tuesday 25th November 2008 21:28 GMT} as to how long it takes for someone to use this toolkit as a handy deus ex machina in a two-bit SF offering?"
You're late for that one... that entire theme has already been used by R.A. Heinlein, Norbert Dillich, Isaac Asimov, Robert Silverberg, and a whole load of others in the mid-50s, and some others since then.
Sorry... not really an original theme. Try Kurt Vonnegut for a pretty unique take on the general idea.
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