Space Station Spacewalkers Stymied By Stubborn Bolt 290
Hugh Pickens writes "Reuters reports that astronauts at the International Space Station ran into problems after removing the station's 100-kg power-switching unit, one of four used in a system that distributes electrical power generated by the station's solar array wings, and were stymied after repeated attempts to attach the new device failed when a bolt jammed, preventing astronauts from hooking it up into the station's power grid. Japanese Astronaut Akihiko Hoshide got the bolt to turn nine times but engineers need 15 turns to secure the power-switching unit. 'We're kind of at a loss of what else we can try,' said astronaut Jack Fischer at NASA's Mission Control Center in Houston after more than an hour of trouble-shooting. 'If you guys have any thoughts or ideas or brilliant schemes on what we can do, let us know.' Hoshide suggested using a tool that provides more force on bolts, but NASA engineers are reluctant to try anything that could make the situation worse and as the spacewalk slipped past seven hours, flight controllers told the astronauts to tether the unit in place, clean up their tools and head back into the station's airlock. NASA officials says the failure to secure the new unit won't disrupt station operations but it will force engineers to carefully distribute electrical power from three operating units to various station systems and says another attempt to install the power distributor could come as early as next week if engineers can figure out what to do with the stubborn bolt. 'We're going to figure it out another day,' says Fischer."
Red Green solution (Score:2)
Just thinking out loud here: how many bolts does it take to hold down the power unit in the first place? If the original plan calls for ten bolts, then one missing bolt would only diminish the strength by 10%.
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How about lipids? Putting some soap around the threads of the bolt should help a stubborn bolt screw in.
They do have soap in space, right? Bar soap would be recommended.
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The only two things you need in life:
WD40 to make things go.
Duct tape to make them stop.
Re:Red Green solution (Score:5, Funny)
Yep. I predict a whole bunch of armchair engineers telling NASA how to unscrew a bolt on a trillion dollar space station.
Duct tape, WD40, ... I think I'll skip this one.
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Yep. I predict a whole bunch of armchair engineers telling NASA how to unscrew a bolt on a trillion dollar space station.
Duct tape, WD40, ... I think I'll skip this one.
You're right, this is actually a sticky situation. Break off the bolt = screwed. Plus a myriad of other risks and consequences I don't know about since I'm not an astronaut.
Also, it's a little trickier than the rusty bolt on the muffler of your 79 pinto, seeing as how it's on the side of a SPACE STATION that is IN SPACE.
But, since I do have an armchair and since I am an engineer I figure they will ultimately have to try some sort of lubricant or thread treatment, the risk of snapping off the bolt is too hig
Re:Red Green solution (Score:5, Interesting)
But, since I do have an armchair and since I am an engineer I figure they will ultimately have to try some sort of lubricant or thread treatment, the risk of snapping off the bolt is too high.
If anybody bothers to read the article it mentions "metal shavings on one of its bolts and around the housing" when they removed the bolt and now it won't go back in again.
Looking at a few random posts it doesn't seem like anybody bothered - none of them are remotely related to the problem (ie. the thread needs cleaning).
Applying more force to a damaged thread will probably make it much, much worse. NASA is right to not force it.
Anecdote: This happened to my bike pedal. The pedal has a steel thread and the crank is aluminum. After a couple of months the aluminum gave up the ghost and the pedal fell out. I put some Araldite on the bolt and what was left of the crank thread and screwed it together. It's been fine ever since, maybe they could do that. :-)
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If anybody bothers to read the article it mentions "metal shavings on one of its bolts and around the housing" when they removed the bolt and now it won't go back in again.
Boy, that's an awfully polite way of saying "Damn Jimmy, now look what you dun did! You stripped the dagum bolt out!"
Yes, even in space, redneck rules apply.
Re:Red Green solution (Score:5, Informative)
I know there have been experiments that included capillary action in micro-gravity, astronauts playing with a globe of water and a straw for example. But as far as I know, all such experiments were in a pressurized, shirt sleeve environment. I'm not aware of any similar experiments with fluids in microgravity *and* vacuum.
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working on old cars almost daily this is somewhat common.
without any lubricants or excessive force, the trick is usually to remove the object being attached, then try to get the bolt to screw in fully, failing that, using something to try and clean the thread and just trying again several times.
Usually it's just some kind of dirt OR the object being attached not perfectly aligned or slightly wrong dimensions.
Once i tried to get a bolt to screw in for weeks, despite everything seemingly aligning perfectly (V
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It might not be rocket science to identify and rectify the problem... on earth. Under gravity. You know, where shavings fall downwards, where we have access to as many tools as our credit cards can afford us and as many improvised tools as our toolchest/home/neighbourhood can offer...
But it's pretty damn close to rocket science how to identify and deal with the same problem while wearing an unwieldy space-suit in a weightless environment, with the extremely limited set of equipment and resources they have a
Blessing in disguise ? (Score:4, Insightful)
This stubborn bolt incident may turn out to be a blessing in disguise
So far we human have been using many of the same things that we use on Earth and applying them on exotic locations, such as space
Inside the gravity well, whenever we meet with a stubborn bolt problem, we have many means to solve it - either apply lubrication to the bolt to make it easier to manage, apply brute force and get it in no matter what, or we throw away that stubborn bolt and replace it with another bolt
But on space, such options are not available, and/or not applicable
Maybe this whole thing is a blessing in disguise
Maybe, out of this experience, someone will come out with another method to affix two things tightly together, without having to rely on bolts and nuts
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Re:Blessing in disguise ? (Score:4, Insightful)
I am not disputing the fact that nuts and bolts will be with us for a long-long time
But I am pointing out that nuts and bolts do have their own problems - and right now what's happening on ISS illustrate that problem - it's a human problem, really, but when threads "eat" into other threads, the damn thing just stuck
That is why I said, this incident may be a blessing in disguise - maybe someone can figure out a better solution, that this "stuck bolt" problem will no longer plague critical missions on exotic locations, such as ISS
Tap and die (Score:2)
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What, like the engineer's ghee you lubricate the tap and die with before cutting?
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ghee??
does that go into a kind of vinda-screw sauce?
I bet if you dipped a bolt into that, it'd screw in.
I'd wonder about what would happen a few hours later, though.
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Re:Tap and die (Score:4, Interesting)
There is spontaneous vacuum cold welding of materials, because there's no natural air lubricant is absent and atomic bonds tend to migrate across the interfaces. Capillary action works differently. In microgravity, without an anchor the tool operator is more likely to turn around the bolt than turn the bolt.
Re:Tap and die (Score:5, Funny)
loosen other bolts (Score:5, Insightful)
Common error with multiple fasteners. Loosen the other bolts, then tighten them all evenly.
Re:loosen other bolts (Score:5, Informative)
Yes.
Yes.
Yes.
Can't tell you how many times this happens to me. You always leave bolts loose, and then incrementally tighten. Hell, you even do it when changing a tire.
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Always like a car analagy but not in this case.
The concern when attaching a tire is the likleyhood of warping the rotor or drum that the rim is being secured to.
You tighten incrementally in a star pattern for that reason.
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Yes and if it can only turn 9 times why can they undo it and use a washer? I'm sure there is a good reason but I have no idea if the specifications for that are publicly available.
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Yes and if it can only turn 9 times why can they undo it and use a washer? I'm sure there is a good reason but I have no idea if the specifications for that are publicly available.
Sure. I'm sure they can just go into the garage, and grub around in a coffee can for the right-sized washer...
Riiiiight.
Damn... (Score:2, Insightful)
Damn those self-sealing stem bolts.
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Damn those self-sealing stem bolts.
Well, at least someone finally found a use for them.
In hindsight (Score:5, Funny)
They should have used self-sealing stem bolts, they don't have this problem.
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But they didn't have any reverse racheting routers to install them with.
The answer is obvious (Score:5, Funny)
Just hammer it in with a crescent wrench.. what's the matter with these people?
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You didn't used to own a 1987 Mitsubishi Montero, did you? Because there aren't too many people in the world who would use a hammer to attach a battery terminal...
Zero weight! (Score:4, Funny)
Oh, come on, this thing weights zero in orbit, they can just scotch-tape it in place! ;)
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almost zero weight in orbit...maybe at present, but it has a hell of a lot of MASS AND INERTIA.
scotch tape can't keep it fixed in the same place when the station fires its orbital adjustment thrusters and it will move and trash around like a wild bantha when the station is doing orbit adjustments.
Cross threaded (Score:5, Funny)
Sounds like they got the bolt cross threaded.
Just need to back out the bolt, run a thread chaser [amazon.com] through to clean up the threads and try again.
And if NASA has an Amazon Prime membership, Amazon will have it delivered to the space station by Wednesday (if they pay the $3.99 overnight delivery fee). There may also be a small surcharge for orbital delivery.
Sounds like the unit came from IKEA . . . (Score:3)
. . . there's always one last bolt that doesn't fit, and too many screws of the wrong size, too few of the right size, a dinky little five-sided hex wrench, and an ancient Egyptian plan for building pyramids written in Hieroglyphics.
NASA needs a gear-head astronaut with NASCAR Hillbilly Armor experience. And a six-pack to offer him, because he will refuse to take pay for such a simple task.
Ideas (Score:2)
"Do you guys have any ideas?"
The all-too-common customer support query. I wouldn't want to be on that help desk.
Try an Ersatz Thread Chaser (Score:2)
Hmmm...Zero Gravity Environment??? (Score:2)
Right.
1. Remove bolt.
2. Shine pen camera and light down the hole.
3. Remove foreign object that slipped in there when nobody was looking, or forgot to check first.
It's called the "Law of Small, Easily Lost Items", aka "The Law of Dice".
"Any small, necessary object, when dropped, will travel a distance that is inversely proportionate to the force provided or otherwise available at the moment of dropping, and settle into the most ridiculously inaccessible or otherwise inconvenient location. The level of co
Oh come on... (Score:3)
Apply heat? (Score:2)
return it to place of purchase (Score:2)
its *certainly* under warranty, right? I would assume so. and you guys all kept the papers? (someone has to have them. check your trunks and gloveboxes).
if you return it in time, you can get a swap. I'm pretty sure.
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I'm sorry. But it clearly states "No user serviceable parts inside". By removing the cover, you have voided the warranty.
Besides, you can't return it. You've bent it.
God help them (Score:2)
if they just cross threaded the beeeatch.
"Erm... Houston, we have a problem. Poindexter just cross threaded the space station."
essssssssss (Score:2)
I wonder how long the Slashdot editors spent thinking of a word for "bolt" that starts with S.
Isnt getting all words of a headline starting with the same letter something like a journalgasm for journalists?
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Well, they sure screwed that up. Yes, totally screwed up.
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I wonder how long the Slashdot editors spent thinking of a word for "bolt" that starts with S.
Isnt getting all words of a headline starting with the same letter something like a journalgasm for journalists?
Ah, screw it. "Bolt" it is.... [submit]
Now they want our help (Score:5, Funny)
If you guys have any thoughts or ideas or brilliant schemes on what we can do, let us know.
Slashdot shop rates
The solution is simple... (Score:2)
Re:Come on, this is 2012 (Score:5, Insightful)
you're obviously not an engineer. the big things are made up out of tiny things. its always* a tiny things that gets you
Re:Come on, this is 2012 (Score:5, Insightful)
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Could be a lot of things, and you can't test space technology 100% without, you know, putting it into space.
Fair point!
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Presumably you also test your systems in a vacuum and 300C swings in temperature? Conditions in space are very hard to replicate on the ground and all sorts of weird things happen to metal-on-metal contact in vacuum. The problem here could be (a guess/example) something related to 7% extra torque being needed because of a temperature swing which then bends the male threads slightly, exposing an non-oxidised layer which then vacuum welds to the female thread. Could be a lot of things, and you can't test space technology 100% without, you know, putting it into space.
I thought the whole reason why space bolts are expensive is the vacuum and extreme temperature changes thing.
but why use bolts in the design in the first place? I mean, who wants to turn nuts and bolts in current space suits. friggin nobody.
but maybe they're now just going to wait couple of days and temperature cycles and go tap it after that..
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Bolts and nuts are relatively cheap, easy to manufacture and very reliable usually.
Given the temperature swings, 0G etc. it doesn't leave much room for other kind of joints. Maybe stainless zip ties could work to some degree.
Re:Come on, this is 2012 (Score:5, Informative)
Mechanical design is very different, I've done both. You're working with analogue systems, which means that everything has a tolerance - let's compare it to 'bits of accuracy'. You can go to a higher accuracy, but it becomes vastly more expensive. Unfortunately, every copy of the component is different, which is scary for CS people. Imagine if every time you created a copy of something, it was *guaranteed* to be slightly different.
So, you suggest doing something like 'unit tests'. Well, that's what they did, and that's what happened here, a unit test failed. They should be getting 15 turns, but are only getting 9. They're not sure why, so they're going to brainstorm and come up with a bunch of possibilities, discount as many as they can based on physics, design etc, and see if they can figure out what's wrong.
Perhaps it would be better if the summary included something like "a unit test failed", then the CS people would understand.
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Re:Come on, this is 2012 (Score:4, Interesting)
you're obviously not an engineer. the big things are made up out of tiny things. its always* a tiny things that gets you
Not a mechanical engineer, no. I'm a network engineer. And when I build a network, I make sure to catch the "low hanging fruit" when I test things.
And when it comes to testing bolts, even with my non-mechanical engineering background, I can see that this is low hanging fruit. Will this bolt be able to turn 15 times in this configuration? I'm sure NASA would have been able to test that in their fish tank, and they probably did; with a different bolt...
Are you seriously saying that you've never tested a network device in your test lab that was supposed to be a drop-in replacement for older technology already installed in the office (which is a unique environment that's not repeated anywhere else in your organization), then had the new device fail to work when it was plugged in without having someone tweak the configuration?
And it's often the "low hanging fruit" that causes the problem when it's something out of the ordinary...like that someone had to force the port from autonegotiate to 100mbit because there's a flaky connection somewhere between the device and the core network so the autonegotiated 1000mbit connection wouldn't stay up, and building management refuses to replace the network cable.
In this case, they discovered metal filings when they unbolted the old unit, and though they sprayed them out with compressed nitrogen, there was apparently significant enough thread damage that the new bolt wouldn't go in.
A test lab tries to approximate reality, but it's hard to do a complete simulation of a component exposed to the vacuum of space with repeated and severe heat/cool cycles as it's exposed to and shaded from the sun.
I don't doubt that they tested everything right down to the exact same bolts (probably machined by the same vendor, and possibly even made from the same ingot of raw metal), but no test lab is a perfect representation of the real-world. Most spacewalk maintenance is rehearsed dozens or hundreds of times on earth before attempted in space.
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Are you seriously saying that you've never tested a network device in your test lab that was supposed to be a drop-in replacement for older technology already installed in the office (which is a unique environment that's not repeated anywhere else in your organization), then had the new device fail to work when it was plugged in without having someone tweak the configuration?
For mission-critical networks, we have a lab setup which precisely emulate the production network: same ports, same software, same physical connections. The only difference is physical. In those cases, reconfiguration means someone messed up a test.
Re:Come on, this is 2012 (Score:4, Insightful)
Are you seriously saying that you've never tested a network device in your test lab that was supposed to be a drop-in replacement for older technology already installed in the office (which is a unique environment that's not repeated anywhere else in your organization), then had the new device fail to work when it was plugged in without having someone tweak the configuration?
For mission-critical networks, we have a lab setup which precisely emulate the production network: same ports, same software, same physical connections. The only difference is physical. In those cases, reconfiguration means someone messed up a test.
Well that's kind of the problem -- the physical environment. Equipment that works fine in test may not work in the real environment. For example, when you replace that old access switch that has a 100mbit trunk back to the core, you mean find out that the new switch that works great at 1gbit in your test lab works sporadically in the field because the building wiring is substandard can't support gig, if you pin the connection to 100mbit it works fine. (or replace the wiring if that's an option)
Or, in the case of the ISS, it means that the the test environment couldn't replicate the conditions in space (which, literally exist nowhere else on earth), which led to a damaged bolt when removing the part, and then the current difficulties with installing the new one.
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A bolt and nut system is very simple but especially when manufactured to fine tolerances it can seize due to a small piece of debris or a slight ding to the threads.
In space WD-40 is not really an option.
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"In space WD-40 is not really an option."
Why not? Do you have some special insights?
After all, it was developed for use in rockets.
From WP:
"WD-40 is the trademark name of a penetrating oil and water-displacing spray. It was developed in 1953 by Norm Larsen, founder of the Rocket Chemical Company, in San Diego, California. WD-40, from the abbreviation "Water Displacement, 40th formula,"[1] was originally designed to repel water and prevent corrosion,[2] and later was found to have numerous household uses.
Lar
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Those rockets you mention are not meant to operate in 0G vacuum under huge temperature swings without convection to aid ...
Likely WD-40 turns to gaseous form in vacuum, would be my guess. But who knows.
Re:Come on, this is 2012 (Score:5, Insightful)
If you're an electrical or computer engineer specializing in networks you should have enough experience to know that a single bent or corroded pin, or slightly non uniformly applied piece of solder can ruin you day.
If you're on site somewhere, especially somewhere remote, it's hard to know just how things will get messed up. What works in a lab is very different than after you've shipped it off some place and tried to get it to behave there.
Before you deploy a network you obviously test it in your own lab under exactly the same humidity, temperature, radiation exposure, altitude and personnel as for on site right? To what tolerance? You also test all of your backup equipment by having samples you store in exactly the way they're going to be stored at a live test sight, so you know what the probability is of something happening to them during storage?
Now we know single bit flip in an ethernet packet is just the sort of low hanging fruit of problems that we have network engineers for right? So I'm guessing you developed your own mathematically perfect CRC that you have published and that we should all use, to solve the 'low hanging fruit' of single bit flip errors? Just like a thread on nut and bolt right - you can take your perfect errorless network hardware, put in an aircraft, fly it to a remote island 12 time zones away you know you, with absolute certainty, that it will work 100% of the time? You should get a PhD and write articles about your techniques, the rest of us could really benefit from that.
Maybe you're not on the software side of things, but more hardware, say telephone twisted pair. Now as you know, the reason we twist pairs of wires is to prevent a signal on one wire from inducing a field on another. So I'm guessing you have some piece of equipment that can verify that all the twisted pair sets of wires you use are optimally twisted? What's it called?
Ok I'll stop being a snide asshole, unless I find out you're one of my former students.
You're right, that yes, good engineering is supposed to predict problems in advance and plan for them. You do as many tests as you can, and hope that you've figured out what problems will arise. Unfortunately, it doesn't always work perfectly, there's always some random error involved, that you have to cope with on the fly. On the ground I would say 'try another bolt', up in space, when you've got a dude in a space suit simple solutions become very expensive, time consuming and very risky. I used to do something very similar to network engineering as an on site guy, and problems that take 5 minutes to solve in the lab can take hours in the field. And think about the problem they're having they removed an old unit, and in doing so a bolt shaved. They don't, apparently, have spare bolts easily accessible for this. Now they have a tool that can apply more force to the bolt, but that could break the bolt, so rather than trying it (and it might work, and everyone is happy, and no news story gets posted on /.) they decide to take some time, think about it, probably test out a few scenarios on the ground, and go from there.
Notice also how they seemed to have some idea what to do when there were shavings from the bolt - they tried to blow away the pieces with nitrogen - someone planned enough to figure carrying a can of nitrogen might be useful, but I suspect that's a tricky problem with gloves on where you can risk puncturing the glove.
Trying to work in space, and to a lesser degree underwater, is very much an exercise in trying to not make things worse - even if you think you have a solution to this problem you're better to not screw it up and wreck hundreds of millions of dollars in equipment or a bolt that probably several hundred if not several thousand dollars to even get there (a single 100g bolt would cost anywhere between 400 dollars and 4000 depending on what launched it there).
Re:Come on, this is 2012 (Score:4, Insightful)
> Not a mechanical engineer, no. I'm a network engineer.
So then...No, you're not an engineer.
Re:Come on, this is 2012 (Score:4, Interesting)
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Exactly what I was thinking... (Score:2)
If a bolt will not turn, lubricant is a pretty clear answer...
As for the cheater bar, that's what they were afraid to try because they are probably afraid of snapping the bolt. Bad thing to do in space.
Re:Exactly what I was thinking... (Score:4, Funny)
You could try WD-40, but I suspect that Newton's Third Law outlaws use of aerosol cans in space.
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NASA explicitly prohibits cheater bars (they follow the right tool for the right job philosophy, strange isnt it). So that is ruled out too.
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NASA explicitly prohibits cheater bars (they follow the right tool for the right job philosophy, strange isnt it).
Actually anyone who has worked with things mechanical knows, that there is NEVER one right tool for the job, because sometimes the mechanical characteristics of the job is not what you thought.
NASA represents the ultimate in down to the last micrometer planning. But we see clearly that even with millions of dollars and teams planning ahead, even then sometimes a bolt just sticks. And that mean
Re:Exactly what I was thinking... (Score:5, Funny)
They wouldn't have lasted 4 months on MIR, let alone a decade. That thing was held together by duct tape and lubricated by vodka. It seems the good ol' russian approach to technology applied here too: If force doesn't fix it, use more force.
Space lubricant (Score:2)
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I would use Tri-Flow. It has beads of Teflon in it...
It good from -60 to 475F, but even if the oil boils off, the Teflon is still in the critical thread.
http://www.triflowlubricants.com/Tri-Flow_Pin_Point_Lubricant.html [triflowlubricants.com]
Send some real tools... start being real spacemen (Score:3)
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Joking aside for a moment, wouldn't the can explode if you took it into an unpressurised environment like space? Even if you did, wouldn't the propellant immediately evaporate the moment it left the nozzle?
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Joking aside for a moment, wouldn't the can explode if you took it into an unpressurised environment like space?
The "void" of the space is only 14.7 PSI lower than at the sea level. My guess about the typical pressure in a spray can: around 80-120 PSI - this taking one into space will only raise the pressure difference by 18% - easy to compensate with a slightly thicker wall.
Even if you did, wouldn't the propellant immediately evaporate the moment it left the nozzle?
I wouldn't worry about the propellant, its job is to propel; the higher the "exit velocity" the better the transport/dispersion... At most, the "propelled" would matter - one will need to consider the vapour pressure of it while working at the te
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Why increase the wall size when you can simply produce a can with less pressure? Essentially that would lead to comparable results considering that the pressure difference between inside and outside the can would stay equal.
Of course, one should probably first find out how the rest of the stuff reacts when subjected to zero bar air pressure instead of one.
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Why increase the wall size when you can simply produce a can with less pressure? Essentially that would lead to comparable results considering that the pressure difference between inside and outside the can would stay equal.
My guess... it's not about the pressure, it's about the volume of propellant that is able to displace/move/spray the entire content of the can.
Of course, one should probably first find out how the rest of the stuff reacts when subjected to zero bar air pressure instead of one.
Some info [wired.com] - mineral oil, probably won't evaporate. The rest (alkans fraction, CO2 propellant)... a low vapor pressure (the alkans fraction) and a somehow directional spray (assumed to hit an obstacle) would saturate a volume quite quick (even if not enclosed).
But... the temperature of the surface is the biggest problem - the most volatile is the CO2 propellant and -5
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Anyone with a clue (engineers and mechanics alike) know that WD-40 worthless as a lubricant.
It was designed and works fine as a water displacer, but isn't good for anything else.
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It's great for getting rust off of bicycle chains, but make sure you put some REAL grease on afterwards, or your chain will wear!
Re:Space WD-40? (Score:4, Insightful)
Any self-respecting mechanic knows that WD-40 is next to useless for freeing seized fasteners*. You need a good penetrating oil or releasing fluid, e.g. Plusgas.
*It's also a very poor lubricant if you want something that lasts more than a couple of hours.
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Found that out after I ruined my skateboard bearings as a kid. My brother's board was a dream because he was smart enough to take the bearings out and pack them in actual grease instead of just squirting in WD-40.
These days the only use I can imagine for the stuff is to keep tools from rusting.
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Found that out after I ruined my skateboard bearings as a kid. My brother's board was a dream because he was smart enough to take the bearings out and pack them in actual grease instead of just squirting in WD-40.
These days the only use I can imagine for the stuff is to keep tools from rusting.
That's because "water displacement" is EXACTLY what WD-40 was designed for.
WD-40 stands for "Water Displacement [formula] 40", and was created to keep rust off Atlas missiles [wd40.com] while they were in their launch silos.
Then, probably out of frustration, someone put some on a frozen bolt, and a new consumer product was born.
But no, it isn't a lubricant; because it was never meant to be. It always saddens/amuses me to see that WD-40 is used for that application, when so many better products, such as PB Blast,
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The solution is to build the tank or can with a flexible membrane that separates the propellant from the product, so the product is always "solid" liquid with no gas or vacuum voids.
I would just use the pen dispenser [wd40.com]; capillary action works just as well in microgravity.
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Use bee's wax instead of soap. Soap is hygroscopic and not all that chemically stable and will induce rust or other difficulties.
Rust requires oxygen, so is unlikely to be a major problem on the outside of a space station. There's oxygen up there, but the concentration is very low.
High tech answer (Score:2)
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I doubt it is cross threaded, as all these guys "know the drill."
Galling is a common problem with otherwise correctly sized and connected threaded parts. Once a burr occurs, a bolt that otherwise runs free suddenly starts self-welding building up a mass of torn metal in between the threads which just effectively locks the parts together.
Stainless Steel bolts into Stainless Steel holes have a tendency to gall easily.
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In a vacuum the metal parts, if very well machined, might be trying to bond together. Ball Aerospace used to sell a compound that was designed to keep the door on the Lunar Excursion Module (LEM) from seizing shut in the vacuum of space. They sold it later to coat LP records to reduce friction from the diamond stylus dragging through the groove in a vinyl record. Perhaps they have some of that or moly paste for the threads like used for the spark plug in a gasoline motor with aluminum head threads. Just a thought...
Wow! Is THAT where that stuff came from?!? I might have used it myself had I known that; but always just considered it yet another bit of snake-old to dupe gullible audiophiles out of their money. Afterall, there have been no shortage of those...
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Get the oxy acetylene out all any stuck bolt needs is bit of heat.
Actually, the heat application idea isn't bad.
I would assume that normally, a piece of equipment being worked on such as the unit in question is typically oriented to put the work area in shade from the sun for the duration of the work to prevent blinding reflections and overheated suit cooling units.
I would suggest:
A> Loosen the bolts and then try re-tightening incrementally, going from bolt to bolt and tightening each a turn
If 'A' fails:
B> Rotate it sun-ward and let it heat in direct sunlight for a
Re: (Score:2)
hell no, use PB BLASTER!
I wholeheartedly agree!
PB Blast is hands-down the most effective "penetrating oil".
I learned about it from a mechanic-friend who worked restoring military equipment for a museum. Stuff ranged from WW I to Vietnam-era, and was NOT stored with an eye toward "rust prevention", to say the least!
br. The rule is: If you want to PREVENT rust, then WD-40 is the ticket; but if you already HAVE rust, PB Blast is the best!