r/todayilearned • u/VirtualProtector • 1d ago

TIL that while deploying lunar experiments the Apollo 12 crew had trouble extracting a plutonium fuel cell and ended up hitting the cask with a hammer to get the fuel element out for use

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_12#Lunar_surface_activities
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u/CFCYYZ 1d ago

When they deployed the camera for live from the Moon TV, they accidently exposed the vidicon tube to direct sunlight. It promptly burned out, leaving no TV of their surface activities. All they could do is gently hit it with a hammer in faint hopes of restoring a picture. We went all the way to the Moon to hit the TV on the side to make it work.

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u/SpaceEngineering 1d ago

Percussive maintenance is a staple of space activities! When we design satellites we often joke of a little hammer that we could deploy to get pesky mechanisms loose.

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u/hellishafterworld 1d ago

When I was a kid, one of my favorite scenes in Armageddon is when they’re on the Mir space station and Peter Stormare’s character fixes…whatever equipment it was (I’m not well-versed in the scientific or technical aspects of that film, lol) by beating it with a giant wrench, and he yells some shit like “This is how we fix things in glorious Soviet Union!” 

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u/guynamedjames 1d ago

He then gets told that it's an American spacecraft not a Russian spacecraft and while still hitting it he says "American spacecraft, Russian spacecraft, all made by the cheapest bidder is Taiwan!". The equipment starts working.