An extravehicular activity (EVA) tool bag drifts away from the International Space Station during the mission's first scheduled spacewalk for STS-126.Posted on 11/28/2008 8:15:24 AM PST by BGHater
Amateur astronomers have been monitoring a shiny tool bag that has been orbiting Earth ever since it was dropped last week by an astronaut during a spacewalk outside the International Space Station.
The bag is reportedly about magnitude 6.4, which under most sky conditions is too faint to see with the naked eye.
Veteran spacewalker and Endeavor astronaut Heide Stefanyshyn-Piper lost her grip on the backpack-sized bag on Nov. 18 while cleaning up a mess from a leaking grease gun she was carrying to help mop up metal grit from inside a massive gear that turns the space station's starboard solar wings.
The tool bag cost $100,000 and its loss meant astronauts had to share the remaining tool bag for subsequent spacewalks. The tool bag weighs about 30 pounds (14 kg) and is 20 inches (51 cm) wide, about a foot (30 cm) tall and a hand's-width deep, according to John Ray, STS-126 lead spacewalk officer for the flight. The bag contained two grease guns, a scraper tool, a large trash bag and a small debris bag.
Once the tool bag floated away, some thought they'd seen the end of it. Not quite. A satellite tracker at Spaceweather.com now is monitoring both the space station and the tool bag.
After sunset on Nov. 22, Edward Light, using 10 x 50 binoculars, spotted the bag in space while he scanned the sky from his backyard in Lakewood, N.J., Spaceweather.com reported. On the same night, Keven Fetter of Brockville, Ontario, video-recorded the bag as it passed by the star Eta Pisces in the constellation Pisces.
More bag-viewing opportunities are expected.
The tool bag can be seen through binoculars, a few minutes ahead of the space station's orbit. The satellite tracker predicts that the bag will be visible through binoculars from Europe and western North America during a series of passes this week. By late next week, the tool bag should appear in the evening skies over most of North America.
Like other space debris, the tool bag's show will have a fiery end. "We currently predict that the errant tool bag will fall back to Earth in June of next year," said Nicholas Johnson, chief scientist for orbital debris at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. "The date is dependent upon solar activity, so an earlier or later date is possible. As the reentry date draws nearer, a more accurate prediction can be made."
And he expects the entire tool bag will burn up upon reentry. "Although we have not yet conducted a detailed reentry survivability analysis for the tool bag and its contents, it is highly likely that no components will reach the surface of the Earth," Johnson told SPACE.com.
The tool bag is not the only piece of space trash from the station. Other junk includes an unmanned Russian cargo ship and a massive ammonia coolant tank the size of a refrigerator. The coolant tank was intentionally tossed from the space station in 2007, and it burned up in Earth's atmosphere earlier this month. The cargo ship undocked on Nov. 14, but will loiter in orbit for engineering tests before its planned disposal in Earth's atmosphere in early December.
An extravehicular activity (EVA) tool bag drifts away from the International Space Station during the mission's first scheduled spacewalk for STS-126.
“What force would cause the tool bag to float away?”
I don’t understand that either. Why doesn’t that force push the tool bag towards the astronaut? Or go straight up or straight down? Why don’t they have a leash on everything? Was this really an accident? Why doesn’t it stay in orbit? Shouldn’t it take off into infinity? If the tool bag falls to Earth why doesn’t the space station, too? Was the tool bag looking for Joe the Plumber?
But wait, there’s more...
Thats right! order now and I will include a bottle of “mighty mendit”.
Perfect for repairing those pesky solar arrays...
Your link is lost in space
Opps there it is!
I clicked on the hypertext for “youtube”
Challenger.
In low erf orbit, the erf exhibits the greatest gravitational pull so as long as she didn't chuck the bag at escape velocity, its orbit will decay until it encounters sufficient atmospheric contact to burn it up.
What a great field service job.
Why cant I get a gig like that?
The space station will also fall if the orbit is not maintained by an occasional push form a rocket. Remember Skylab?
The higher objects such as the communication satellites will stay in orbit damn near forever - they are about 26,000 miles above the Earth. The space station is between 200 and three hundred miles.
well is the canadian arm on board the could get close to it and grab it if the could link up with hubble and fix that im sure the could scope up a little bag or is 100 grand just not worth the effort
RE: astronaut Heide Stefanyshyn-Piper.
Hyphenated-name, female astronauts and toolbags shouldn’t be brought together in the same solar system, maybe?
They'd have to chase it down with a shuttle, either with a new launch or somehow before re-entry. I'm guessing it's not feasible from their current position before re-entry, and either way the cost of retrieval would probably grossly exceed the value of getting the bag back.
You asked — “Why could they not retrieve it”
Welllll..., you could end up tracking and watching — an astronaut *and* a tool bag — in space... LOL...
You said — “This statement puzzles me. What force would cause the tool bag to float away?”
No force... just “inertia” — a moving object keeps moving and a stationary object stays stationary (unless acted upon by a force).
Soooo..., unless you place it *precisely* still (it’s never “still”, but at least “still” in relation to your own movement) — it will keep on moving, ever-so-slowly — until it’s out of reach, by the next time you look at it.
ALSO, all you have to do is “bump” it (and not know you just did that) and, once again, it would “ever-so-slowly” float away, out of normal reach...
It’s really *so, so, so* easy for things to float away that the *real problem* is how to keep things *from floating away*....
Surely you can see it!
I see it but don't call me Shirley!
Throw in a Shamwow! and a pair of Tweezies and you’ve got yourself a deal!
You said — “Uh, er, umm, duh, things cannot be dropped in space.”
Ummm..., yes you can... LOL...
An “orbit” is to “continuously fall towards earth” — which can be considered “dropping” towards earth, continuously... That is precisely what an “orbit” is...
and it wasn't leashed/tethered to her because?????????
Sold!
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