Saturday, September 26, 2020

Yikes! Time to jettison the escape pods?

 NASA and the Russian Space Agency Roscosmos are searching for a small air leak on the International Space Station (ISS), according to Sputnik

The crew of the ISS will move to the Russian side of the station on Friday, and through the weekend, to allow for a couple of days of air pressure tests. This will be the second time astronauts have isolated in an attempt to find the leak. 

"Over the coming weekend, the ISS crew will self-isolate in the Russian segment of the station to search for an atmospheric leak at the station. The crew will regularly perform all planned operations, nothing threatens the crew's safety," a representative Roscosmos told Sputnik.

NASA has said the leak was first detected on Sept. 2019 but has worsened in recent months.  

As the ISS crew works over the weekend to find the source of the leak, readers may recall, in 2018, the station experienced another air leak that was initially thought to be the result of a micrometeorite. It was eventually concluded the tiny hole that created the air leak was a "deliberate sabotage."  

Beam me up, Scotty!  The leak is getting worse, they don't know where it is or why there's a leak in the first place.  I'd worry about a sudden increase or even catastrophic loss of air,  since so far they don't know why there is air leaking.   Might be nothing, might be something, no one will know until it's found and fixed.

Should have used a shorter drill bit when putting up those shelves.

7 comments:

  1. Looks like another job for Duct-Tape. I bet they have a good supply on hand.

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  2. Not saying it's Aliens, but....

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  3. Fake news. An air leak in the vac of space would turn that thing into a crushed aluminum can.

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  4. I think you got that backwards. The pressure is on the inside.

    Put on gas masks, fill the place with yellow smoke. Go outside and see where the leak is.

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  5. people living in a balloon shouldn't have needles in their pockets.
    the leak the engineers most dread is a joint leak at one of the module join points.can't be fixed while pressurized. Some of the seal engineering involved would make your hair stand up. maybe they could use a couple of gallons of "Flex Seal" liquid compound up there. what a hell of a commercial that would make.

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  6. Democrats at it again ?

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  7. Humm.. so the Russians determine that the first leak was deliberate sabotage of a module they manufactured, but haven't determined who it was. Now there is still more leaking. What are the chances only one hole was drilled? Is it time to fund Bigelow to put in more of their modules and jettison the Russian crap?

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