Popular Mechanics - USA (2019-06)

Tools Designed

for Zero Grav it y

Sipping coffee, jotting down notes, going for a jog—

astronauts want to do all the normal stuff we do.

Here’s how the tools we take for granted are modified

to work in space. / BY KEVIN DUPZYK /

FISHER SPACE PEN

DEBUT: Apollo 7, 1968

▶

in 1966, two years before the

first crewed Apollo flight. The

original goal: make a ballpoint

gravity, like when it’s upside

fect solution, and has been to

mission since Apollo 7.

PISTOL GRIP TOOL

DEBUT: Hubble Space

Telescope, 1997

▶NASA commissioned a

tool astronauts could use

to service equipment while

wearing space suits. The PGT

is a basic drill-driver, down

to the battery that plugs in

below the grip, but with a

screen that allows precise

torque selection.

HP ENVY ZERO-GRAVITY PRINTER

DEBUT: S T S - 9 5 S h u t t l e

Mission, 1998, and ISS, 2018

▶Inkjet printers move ink with capillary action,

board the ISS, was mainly modified to keep the

as an HP Envy 5600—before all the parts for

They also gave it a flame-retardant shell.

gyroscopes to avoid shaking the

station. TVIS retired in 2013, but

COLBERT (Combined Operational

Load-Bearing External Resis-

tance Treadmill—the acronym is

no accident) carries on, with a new

▶Tired of drinking from pouches,

astronaut Donald Pettit worked

with the company IRPI to develop

a space cup based on experiments

he started in 2008. The toilet-

meets-mug shape manipulates fluid

flow properties to get beverages

to an astronaut’s mouth.

DEBUT: ISS, 2014

▶ The company Made In Space sent the ISS a 3D printer that makes things from plastic

filaments heated to malleability. MIS eliminated materials used on Earth that would disperse

in microgravity and added stabilizers. Eventually, the printer could be used to produce

replacement parts.

20 June 2019 _ PopularMechanics.com

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HOW YOUR WORLD WORKS

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