astronaut loses $100,000 tool bag during spacewalk

**Frank S** · Jun 9, 2018, 08:17 PM

And I suppose they never heard of lanyards either

**Rorschach** · Jun 10, 2018, 12:17 AM

You are not weightless on the moon, it has gravity, it's just less than earth. The reason he is having trouble is not because of the gravity, it's the suit limiting his mobility. The weightless astronauts you have seen are not only in (almost) zero gravity, they are also not hampered by space suits.

As to the dust, the reason dust clouds hang around here on earth is air currents, with no atmosphere on the moon the dust has nothing to hold it up so it falls to the surface as quickly as any other object would regardless of mass.

**MeJasonT** · Jun 10, 2018, 03:58 AM

Technically he dropped the hammer in Arizona, whilst Spielberg filmed a moon landing scene. The hammer was $10 from Walmart.

**Frank S** · Jun 10, 2018, 09:07 AM

Fire fighters here on Earth experience much the same when it comes to having to use tools to bash their way into a burning building. or in trying to put out an oil well fire. Many layers of protective clothing and 30 to 50 pounds of gear strapped to their backs there is a percentage of grip lost with each successive layer added to a glove More is the reason fire fighting hand tools have special designed and shaped handles.
anyone can replicate the clumsiness sensation by swinging a hammer or gripping any hand tool bare handed then put on a pair of cotton jersey gloves and try again than add a pair of thin leather gloves over the cotton gloves by now you will notice a significant reduction in grip strength. then put on a pair of insulated welder's gloves over what you are already wearing. try swinging the hammer or twisting on a screwdriver or use a pair of pliers. Still not convinced try adding a pair of arctic mittens your grip strength will be almost zero by this time, but you have replicated a close equal to the number of layers of the gloves on a space suit or those of a Deep sea Navy Diver's glove Your's will be more bulky because theirs have the layers pressed together as they are made adding to the stiffness obviously the layers in the suit glove are much thinner but the analogy will be close enough.

**Jon** · Sep 28, 2018, 07:15 PM

The classic feather/hammer drop on the moon.

BTW, this (and footage like this) is some of the best anti-moon landing conspiracy evidence out there - things like footage of trajectories of moon dust particles visible in videos. At the time, it was actually more difficult to fake stuff like this than to just fly to the moon and film it.

**ranald** · Sep 28, 2018, 09:31 PM

Originally Posted by Jon

The classic feather/hammer drop on the moon.

BTW, this (and footage like this) is some of the best anti-moon landing conspiracy evidence out there - things like footage of trajectories of moon dust particles visible in videos. At the time, it was actually more difficult to fake stuff like this than to just fly to the moon and film it.

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there are still some out there Jon. Then again the world is flat isn't it.

**bruce.desertrat** · Sep 29, 2018, 11:04 PM

Of course NASA faked the moon landing. However, they hired Stanley Kubrick to do it and he insisted they film on location

**Frank S** · Nov 11, 2023, 05:33 PM

You dropped it now go get it. If he has a jet pack it shouldn't be a problem as long as he reaches the bag before he runs out of tether.

**Toolmaker51** · Nov 12, 2023, 08:43 AM

Originally Posted by Frank S

You dropped it now go get it. If he has a jet pack it shouldn't be a problem as long as he reaches the bag before he runs out of tether.

Or charge of propellant?

**Elizabeth Greene** · Nov 14, 2023, 09:36 AM

Originally Posted by Frank S

You dropped it now go get it. If he has a jet pack it shouldn't be a problem as long as he reaches the bag before he runs out of tether.

They wouldn't use the "jetpack", they'd just push off to grab it.

They wouldn't do that though, first the tether that keeps them on the worksite is pretty short to keep them within range of useful hand and foot holds. That would prevent them from going any appreciable distance. Second, they still wouldn't do it even if they only had the 50' safety tether on. Why? I mean why besides the possibility that the tether would fail and the whole world would watch as the first astronaut dies on orbit over a lost set of wrenches? The ISS has a bunch of sharp, pointy, hot, and fragile things that would damage or be damaged by an Astronaut and spacesuit. If you listen to EVA audio every transit across the station is carefully planned and has a bunch of "don't touch" and "be aware of" cautions about thing x being fragile and the thing next to it being too hot to touch even through the suit gloves. Careening into the wrong thing could end the ISS mission permanently.

Popping off to grab the kit with the Soyuz or Crew Dragon won't work either; Even if it only took 10 or 20 minutes to depart the station (which would be *very* fast and probably damage the ISS) the kit could easily be more than a kilometer away and neither capsule has an airlock to allow an EVA to grab it.