Problem Solving At 350 Miles Up

I acknowledge that I may be the only person not employed by NASA who watches the live NASA TV coverage of shuttle flights, but the mission currently ongoing is a big one. The Atlantis has pulled in the Hubble Space Telescope for its last servicing. The crew is replacing what seems like the majority of the instruments the telescope uses.

Shuttle crews have done this before. What is remarkable about this mission is that the crew will also repair scientific instruments, not just replace self-contained instrument modules. Unfortunately, the work they are performing was never expected to be done, in space or anywhere else. The astronauts, swaddled in bulky space suits and oven-mitt gloves, are expected to undo hundreds of tiny screws and washers in order to access the innards of the instruments.

NASA has fabricated a spectacular array of custom tools to undo fasteners and keep the components from floating off into space. What captured my attention this morning, though, was how utterly common their work was. I, too, have tackled repairs of things around the house. Just like the astronauts, I equip myself with as many of the tools and fasteners I hope I will need. Unlike the astronauts, my tools don't float away from me if I forget to tether them to me. I can also go to the garage (again and again) if it turns I out I have grabbed the wrong tool or, more likely, the wrong size tool. The astronauts don't have that option, which is why they have rehearsed this trip and all of its repairs for two years.

Inevitably, I'll mess something up, like stripping a screw head. I have felt the rising fury, and sense of impending helplessness, of that particular failure more than once. This morning, the astronauts faced exactly the same problem. In order to proceed with their delicate work on the telescope's priceless electronics, they first had to remove a grab handle that blocked their access to a cover panel -- an irritating obstruction, but one that should be dealt with easily. Unless one of the eight screws holding it in place becomes stripped. I could hear in the astronaut's voice the same rising tension as he informed his fellow crew members and the mission control guys in Houston that all of their suggestions to solve the problem would not work. NASA could not possibly be stymied in its billion-dollar mission by an inconsequential handle. They put their best brains on the problem. As Mr. Fixit around here who has faced a similar dilemma before, I love their ingenuity:

The had the astronaut yank the useless handle off with brute force.

That leads to an inevitable conclusion: I must have the Right Stuff.