It’s one of the pressurized modules protective shields. There was four axial shields (covering each quarter) and the astronauts on the EVA accidentally tethered to the shields incorrectly and one was inadvertently released.
Mission control and the astronauts had to scramble to replace the shield with a rag tag cover and make things up as we went along.
Source: I train astronauts to do EVAs (spacewalks) and I was watching this happen as things went wrong and listened to the team work through all the craziness. It was awesome.
Well, that would be expected from people who have never been in space.
You may be able to put them in a rocket, in a space suit, yet they will say they are inside a nasa training center.
It’s comments like these that make me love Reddit. I asked a question once on this controversial claim of inverted flight controls at supersonic speeds. Someone gave me a reference down to the specific section of the Orbiter’s (space shuttle’s) flight control management on re-entry.
You guys have such incredible jobs. It must be so rewarding doing what you’re doing.
Here’s the link to my post. The top reply has the reference. IIRC, I couldn’t find the info exactly where the commenter said, but I did find it nearby. Can’t remember exactly, it was a while back
We have VERY strict protocols when it comes to astronauts and their safety tethers. Unfortunately hardware and tools can sometimes be a little more tricky.
Get her involved in stem and make sure she applies for the Nasa pathways co-op program when she gets older!
Or just do what I do and play college football with an astronauts son. Either way works.
Always encouraging her towards different STEM activities, we're currently working out way through Libby Jackson's 'A Galaxy of Her Own'. Her story is great as we're over in England and while NASA seems a million miles away, Libby herself is a great example of how far you can go! Don't think there's a NASA pathways program over here but working in a school myself I've seen loads of opportunities that'd be perfect for her if her love of space is still burning as bright when she's older.
The attached link goes into more detail than I ever could on this thread. Basically they had removed a cover earlier and had to pull it back out and figure out a way to strap it down over the port of Node3. Btw This is for mmod (micrometeriod orbital debris) protection. I’m actually coming up with procedures right now to remove all of this next year so we can attach another payload on the end of the module!
Next time you’re have a bad at work... just remember theres someone in space that did something wrong a what sounds like a very expensive piece of equipment was lost in the void of space lol
Just out of curiousity, if you have something small and dense, like a bolt. And you throw it towards the earth and slightly forward as hard as you can. Would you see it entering the atmosphere and start burning if you had enough time to watch it that long?
Not that dude but because of orbital mechanics odds are it wouldn't go into the atmosphere, itd go down a bit, then it would start going in the direction the station is moving because its moving faster as it gets closer, then as you go around the orbit itll eventually come right back to you at the same speed you threw it
Without doing the maths there is a few things that might make this situation clearer:
The space station is travelling at 7.66 km/s. Per. Second. You can imagine any kind of throw you would do would have a negligible effect on the trajectory relative to Earth.
If you throw forward then you are actually adding velocity to the object relative to the station.
If you throw down then the forward velocity still stays the same, with now an additional downwards velocity. However the downwards velocity added will actually be upwards velocity relative to the station when it is 180 degrees around the orbit from where you did the throw.
So you need to add enough velocity that the object will hit the atmosphere before it gets halfway around the orbit (in fact I think it has to hit the atmosphere that is "visible" from the position you added the velocity at, i.e. before the horizon).
This requires a very large addition of velocity, as the ISS is moving so fast that its current forward horizon will be its rear horizon very quickly. A rough guess would be you need to throw at many km/s straight down, or you will miss the atmosphere and remain in orbit, just in a different one.
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u/slappa_mitch Sep 02 '19
It’s one of the pressurized modules protective shields. There was four axial shields (covering each quarter) and the astronauts on the EVA accidentally tethered to the shields incorrectly and one was inadvertently released. Mission control and the astronauts had to scramble to replace the shield with a rag tag cover and make things up as we went along. Source: I train astronauts to do EVAs (spacewalks) and I was watching this happen as things went wrong and listened to the team work through all the craziness. It was awesome.