The Space Tools That Fixed The Hubble
Nothing is easy in space.Imagine trying to use a caulking gun while wearing hockey gloves and bobbing in zero gravity.To repair or install modules in extreme conditions (temperatures ranging from 150 degrees below zero to 150 degrees Fahrenheit) NASA astronauts need special tools.
Short on time, the engineers turned to commercially available tools that could be modified for space.
“Whenever we can start with something like that, it makes our job easier,” said Russell L. Werneth, Goddard EVA manager for the Hubble Space Telescope and Shuttle Return to Flight.
For the recent mission, to repair the Hubble Telescope,Astronauts packed a total of 180 tools on this mission, 116 of which were specially designed for this trip alone.
Pictured below are a CPU-powered hi-torque pistol, EVA mini work station, imaging spectrograph repair tool, and other items we’ll probably never get to see in person.
Space Tools: Off the Shelf, Onto the Shuttle | Repair in space
NASA space tools
The Space Tools That Fixed The Hubble
The Space Tools That Fixed The Hubble