Air Leak Found in International Space Station

AlphaAtlas

[H]ard|Gawd
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On August 29th, astronauts on the International Space Station noticed a slight drop in air pressure, indicating a possible leak. The following morning, ISS crew members isolated the leak to the docked Soyuz spacecraft, where they found a 2mm hole in the space capsule's hull. Upon receiving advice from Moscow and Houston, the crew sealed the microfracture with a cloth, averting the crisis for the time being. Dmitry Rogozin, the head of Russia's State Space Corporation, believes that the damage was caused by a micro-meteorite impact.

During a live feed from the ISS, Nasa's ground control were heard to comment: "Right now Alex has got his finger on that hole and I don't think that's the best remedy for it."
 
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Hmm, just reminded me of the tale of the boy plugging a hole in the Danish dyke with his finger.....
 
If it was a micro meteor wouldnt there be a hole on the other side? Or at least a dent

probably pulverized itself on impact.

So many questions though:

Air pressure dropping so they waited til the next morning to do anything about it?

Consultation with the best minds on the planet yielded "shove something in the hole to plug it up"?
 
They don't have space age duct tape up there?
They slapped kapton tape on it, and then epoxied over it. Also, duct tape == water-tight; not air-tight.
A micro-meteor, whats to prevent one of those from going thru someones head?
Thoughts and prayers.
so it isnt thick enough if there could be holes that easy
Average orbital velocity (and, thus, impact speed) at that altitude is 17,000+ MPH. Anything light enough to be lifted out of Earth's gravity well ain't doing shit to stop an impact at that speed.
Question ? don't they need that docked Soyuz craft to get home ..or will those crazy russians try re entry with a ship with a hole in it ..:jawdrop:
The hole is in the Soyuz's Orbital Module. That bit gets jettisoned from the lander (Descent Module) before it enters the atmosphere. So the actual ablative ballistic human sardine can is (probably) fine. That said, it's the Russian space program. It would, no doubt, not be the craziest thing they've done on-orbit.

TL;DR: That bit burns up anyway.
If it was a micro meteor wouldnt there be a hole on the other side? Or at least a dent
Maybe. They plugged the hole and they don't detect any more leaks, so it's not a through-and-through. Maybe it's lodged in a wall or equipment. Maybe it's a free-floating fleck of dust. Maybe it holed part of the docking port and they're going to have a nasty surprise when the Soyuz undocks. *shrug*
So many questions though:

Air pressure dropping so they waited til the next morning to do anything about it?

Consultation with the best minds on the planet yielded "shove something in the hole to plug it up"?
That's the difference between "a concern" and "an emergency".

And last I checked, the state of the art fix for "we have a hole" was "fill it"...
 
so it isnt thick enough if there could be holes that easy

You do realize how fast things are moving up there right? This thing was probably equivalent or faster to a bullet being fired at the hull. It would be unpractical to make it thick enough and lift out.

I suppose you are also shocked it didnt explosively decompress like it does in the movies?

A micro-meteor, whats to prevent one of those from going thru someones head?

Sheer luck, well and the hull. It probably disintegrated upon impact. But sheer luck for anything with enough mass to hold together ;)
 
Question ? don't they need that docked Soyuz craft to get home ..or will those crazy russians try re entry with a ship with a hole in it ..:jawdrop:
It would be in a thin area of the craft, not in the heat shield so it really shouldn't take that much to plug the leak and make it safe for reentry. Not that I'd personally want to be the test monkey. ;)
 
They don't have space age duct tape up there?
Per the linked article:
"..astronaut Alexander Gerst initially plugged the gap with his finger, before duct taping over the hole to prevent more air leaking into space."
"Later, the two Russian spacemen put sealant on a cloth and stuck it over the area..."

They do have duct tape up there. I'm sure it's used for all sorts of things. However, it can't be a permanent solution when air pressure is involved. Tape is a relatively thin material and eventually molecules could leak through it or the tape might wear off.

Sounds to me like the permanent solution was using a cloth as a base then using "sealant" on it. The cloth uses the capillary effect to spread the glue sealant, while providing a rigid support structure as it dries. This sounds exactly like the method for making fiberglass...only with less toxic fumes.
 
A micro-meteor, whats to prevent one of those from going thru someones head?
well, they are in space, so there isn't like dust clouds everywhere.
The probability is remote but the effect would be death, especially if it weighed a few more grains than what this one did.


It's not like astronauts dont know about the risks.
 
Can we say 'carbonaceous phyllosilicates'? :D

Most micrometeorites aren't orbital debris from earth, they are actually remnants of collisions from out in the Kuiper Belt. Although asteroids in the Kuiper Belt are mostly ice, they can contain almost any element and compound. Micrometeorites are the survivors of collisions between objects in our solar system, and after thousands of hot, high-energy collisions they have been melted and whittled down to small, hard and fast moving debris in an unusual orbit. They are wicked little shits.

One of the problems you face when defending against fast-moving projectiles is energy. Most people think the hardest object wins, but technically that isn't true - it's the object that is best suited to resisting energy, or is least likely to release energy, that wins. Here's a video of an F-4 phantom hitting a hardened concrete wall at 500 MPH.



I don't mean to confuse you by showing you a kinetic comparison with an unmovable block of concrete, but it is a good example of what happens to aerospace metals when they receive an amount of energy beyond their threshold. The principle of kinetic energy is the same and applies equally to both objects, and the F-4 can't handle it. The F-4 isn't just crumpled - it is vaporized. Its aluminum and steal construction becomes so hot the structure becomes friable and turns to dust, and an F-4 Phantom is a lot stronger than the pressure vessels that make up the space station. The Phantom collision is at 500 MPH of undissipated energy. Bullets average 1,700 MPH. The International Space Station travels at roughly 17,000 MPH, and the fastest recorded meteorite was traveling at 64,000 MPH, so even though a micrometeorite weighs only ounces, the strikes on space craft are nasty. Space engineers have always been worried about them because micrometeorites strike earth all the time - if you've ever seen a shooting star, it was probably some form of meteorite.

You can't harden a space-based pressure vessel so that it is impervious micrometeorites. At best, you get 'resistant', and there's a threshold where it's better to allow the collision to puncture the habitat than to try to stop it. This is one of the reasons that engineers think that the cloth-based, inflatable Bigelow Aerospace habitats are safer than current metal-skinned habitats. The cloth and its underlying structure will flex inward, absorbing more energy. It is a layered defense. It can puncture, but it won't pop. And the inflatable habitats are self-sealing and return to their original shape. It seems ideal - absorb more energy, leave a smaller hole, maintain overall integrity, self-sealing. But the public is afraid of inflatable space houses.

Also, you don't patch a pressure vessel from the outside - the pressure coming from the inside will push on the patch and weaken it. If you can, you patch it from the inside, where the pressure will hold it in place. And you don't just use duct tape or super glue or 'whatevahyahgot' like we do on earth - the space station has a limited volume of breathable atmosphere, and adhesives that cure by drying can degrade that atmosphere and release chemicals that might be harmful to humans (on earth these chemicals would eventually be dissipated by volume, broken down by solar energy, or they will naturally move to the ground or the outer atmosphere).

TL;DR It's all very interesting. At least, I think it is.
 
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They managed the Wolowitz zero gravity toilet blowback, i am sure they can handle this one :)

While they are sort of flying a big ass rebreather up there, then i have no doubt the scrubbers can handle a little CA glue fumes, but i dont think thats the solution, cuz as far as i know the stuff dont handle that cold temperatures.
I am also sure they have some kind of repair kit up there.
 
Average orbital velocity (and, thus, impact speed) at that altitude is 17,000+ MPH. Anything light enough to be lifted out of Earth's gravity well ain't doing shit to stop an impact at that speed.
In fact, you could expect things flying at around twice the speed with which the Earth flies around the Sun to impact you while in space, although the odds of something that small flying that fast impacting you are (quite literally) astronomical. More likely to be hit by something much larger going much slower, but it'd still be something like a train wreck if it happened (regardless of size).

Best to avoid an impact in the first place, if you can, or be prepared to make repairs if you can't.
 
Houston: "What did you do overnight about the hole?"

ISS: "Alex is still standing/floating there, lots of sweating."
 
Well, years of farts/BO will be cleared out, at least. The stuff that would inevitably muck up the joint, even with AC.
 
Maybe its because you Yanks have yet to catch up to the rest of the world when it comes to world wide standard weights and measurements that nobody has mentioned that there's several orders of magnitude difference between a 'micro' (meter) fracture and a hole apparently 2 millimeters in size!

It ain't no micro fracture it's a bloddy great big hole!

micrometeorite

noun
  1. a tiny meteorite having a diameter of 10–40 micrometres, found esp in rainwater and seawater, having entered the atmosphere as a micrometeoroid (extremely small meteoroid)
 
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there was a reason why peeps in the know was pissed off when the Chinese blew up their satellite in orbit
 
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