Astronaut Lost Bag in Space, Now Floating 402 Km Above Earth

Jakarta –

Two NASA astronauts named Jasmin Moghbeli and Loral O’hara lost their bags in space while carrying out a mission outside the International Space Station (ISS). The bag containing the tools then floats in space.

This incident occurred on November 1, 2023, when the two of them were carrying out routine maintenance at the ISS station. Then by accident, they lost the white tool bag.

Flying 402 Kilometers Above the Earth

According to the Smithsonian page, the two astronauts are known to be carrying out routine maintenance such as replacing solar panel pads that provide electricity to the station. They carried out this treatment for 6 hours 42 minutes.

Then, they also installed the new solar panel by removing the grab bar fixture and adjusting the cables that were interfering with the external camera.

However, in the middle of the treatment session, the bag containing their grooming tools or equipment accidentally disappeared.

“Flight controllers spotted the tool bag using an external station camera. Luckily the tool was not needed for the remainder of the spacewalk,” NASA’s Mike Garcia wrote.

“Mission Control analyzed the bag’s trajectory and determined that it would be difficult to recover, so the astronaut crew did not need to take any action,” he added.

After that, the astronaut’s lost tool bag was found to have been floating in outer space about 250 miles or 402 kilometers above Earth.

The Story of an Astronaut Who Lost Another Item

Apparently, incidents of losing items like this are nothing new among astronauts. Because, something similar happened to astronaut Heidemarie Stefanyshyn Piper in 2008.

He lost his tool bag when he was busy tending to a leaking oil gun. Even though the bag contained important equipment, as reported by Space.com.

Another incident also occurred in 2017, where a bag containing a debris shield was lost during a spacewalk carried out by two veteran US astronauts, namely Whitson and Shane Kimbrough, as reported by The Guardian.

Then in 2006, astronauts Joe Tanner and Heidemarie Stefanyshyn Piper who were completing work on the space station also lost bolts, springs and free-floating washers.

In the same year, a spatula used for space shuttle repairs also accidentally disappeared and floated into space by astronaut Piers J. Sellers, as reported by the Los Angeles News.

However, the story of lost items that is quite famous so far is when astronaut Ed White lost his spare gloves during a trip to space.

According to the Space Center report, he lost his glove when the capsule door opened.

Increasing Space Debris

According to Eddie Irizarry and Deborah Byrd from Earthsky, it is estimated that the recently lost tool bag will spend several months floating in space, namely until March 2024, before descending into Earth’s orbit and disintegrating in the atmosphere.

Stargazers are known to have a chance of finding it first through binoculars because the tool bag is white, making it easy to detect.

Since disappearing, the bag has been drifting about a minute faster than the station and counting.

Experts say it’s likely the bag joined other space debris, such as dead satellites, abandoned vehicles and other equipment.

Space debris is also a problem as the amount increases. Even though it is broken into small pieces, if it collides at high speed it will cause danger.

Like the trash in Low Earth orbit around 100-621 miles above the planet’s surface, the trash is moving at a speed of 17,000 miles per hour. This means that even though the object is small, it will still cause major destruction if a collision occurs.

The form of space trash is the same as trash in the ocean which causes pollution.

Scientists are calling for global space cleanup and global space mitigation. Because, overall it is estimated that there are 100 trillion pieces of rubbish of various sizes orbiting the Earth.

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