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I don’t understand how one capsule of that size could fall off a truck without coming with a lot of other stuff too. What was the cargo configuration of this tr

I don’t understand how one capsule of that size could fall off a truck without coming with a lot of other stuff too. What was the cargo configuration of this transport?

chmod600 4y ago
I assume the capsule was in some large equipment in a chamber, and the chamber wasn't closed properly, and it rattled its way out, bumped off the truck onto the road, and was kicked to the side either by that truck or some other vehicle.
- justusthane 4y ago
  Yes, that's basically exactly what happened. I'm not digging up the previous piece I read (sorry), so I may be slightly misstating this, but basically the capsule was inside a sensor which was inside a wooden box bolted to the bed of the truck. On the 1600km of rough roads, the sensor vibrated to pieces, the capsule fell out, one of the bolts holding the box down also vibrated free, and the capsule fell down through the bolt hole. Pretty crazy.
  - Waterluvian 4y ago
    Wow. That’s wild. It reminds me of this experience I occasionally have where something in my home gets lost in the least believable of ways, so we’re hunting for something we’ll never find. One of my kids favourite hats got lost and we looked everywhere including at school. Found it in a Halloween storage bin in the attic. Still no clue what series of events led to that.
    - justusthane 4y ago
      My best one like that is my dad lost his glasses, and they turned up a few days later in the woodchute window - an opening from the outside to the basement of my parents' old farm house for tossing firewood through - which had not been used during the period the glasses were missing and was covered over.
skankenstein 4y ago
Yeah it's a bit odd but I'm sure a lot falls of the back of trucks here just like many other places.
walnutclosefarm 4y ago
The official explanation so far is that the capsule was secured in its holding device which in turn was in a box secured on a pallet. The device was shaken apart by road vibration, and likewise one of the four bolts holding the box to the pallet was shaken out. The capsule bounced through the bolt hole, off the back of the truck and onto the roadside. I think we'll have to wait until the Australian authorities finish an investigation to find out whether that improbable sequence of events is what happened, or whether Rio Tinto put a badly damaged, disassembled detector assembly into a box, did a poor job of securing the box, and THEN the part bounced out from road vibration. Given where it was found, though, I think we can be reasonably certain the last part is true.

I don’t understand how one capsule of that size could fall off a truck without coming with a lot of other stuff too. What was the cargo configuration of this transport?

chmod600 4y ago

I assume the capsule was in some large equipment in a chamber, and the chamber wasn't closed properly, and it rattled its way out, bumped off the truck onto the road, and was kicked to the side either by that truck or some other vehicle.

justusthane 4y ago
Yes, that's basically exactly what happened. I'm not digging up the previous piece I read (sorry), so I may be slightly misstating this, but basically the capsule was inside a sensor which was inside a wooden box bolted to the bed of the truck. On the 1600km of rough roads, the sensor vibrated to pieces, the capsule fell out, one of the bolts holding the box down also vibrated free, and the capsule fell down through the bolt hole. Pretty crazy.
- Waterluvian 4y ago
  Wow. That’s wild. It reminds me of this experience I occasionally have where something in my home gets lost in the least believable of ways, so we’re hunting for something we’ll never find. One of my kids favourite hats got lost and we looked everywhere including at school. Found it in a Halloween storage bin in the attic. Still no clue what series of events led to that.
  - justusthane 4y ago
    My best one like that is my dad lost his glasses, and they turned up a few days later in the woodchute window - an opening from the outside to the basement of my parents' old farm house for tossing firewood through - which had not been used during the period the glasses were missing and was covered over.

skankenstein 4y ago

Yeah it's a bit odd but I'm sure a lot falls of the back of trucks here just like many other places.

walnutclosefarm 4y ago

The official explanation so far is that the capsule was secured in its holding device which in turn was in a box secured on a pallet. The device was shaken apart by road vibration, and likewise one of the four bolts holding the box to the pallet was shaken out. The capsule bounced through the bolt hole, off the back of the truck and onto the roadside. I think we'll have to wait until the Australian authorities finish an investigation to find out whether that improbable sequence of events is what happened, or whether Rio Tinto put a badly damaged, disassembled detector assembly into a box, did a poor job of securing the box, and THEN the part bounced out from road vibration. Given where it was found, though, I think we can be reasonably certain the last part is true.