You may have read about an astronaut losing a tool bag during a space walk last week. If not, here is an article on MSN.

Veteran spacewalker and Endeavour astronaut Heide Stefanyshyn-Piper lost her grip on the backpack-sized bag on Nov. 18 while cleaning up a mess from a leaking grease gun she was carrying. The grease was being used to help mop up metal grit from inside a massive gear that turns the space station’s starboard solar wings.

The tool bag cost $100,000, and its loss meant astronauts had to share the remaining tool bag for subsequent spacewalks. The tool bag weighs about 30 pounds (14 kilograms) and is 20 inches (51 centimeters) wide, about a foot (30 centimeters) high and a hand’s-width deep, according to John Ray, STS-126 lead spacewalk officer for the flight. The bag contained two grease guns, a scraper tool, a large trash bag and a small debris bag.

Can somebody tell me why a bag of that size, even if it’s made out of bulletproof Kevlar, would cost $100,000? Two grease guns, a scraper tool, a large trash bag and a small debris bag?