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Astronauts told to return to ISS after sheltering over air leak repairs

bbc.com

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Re: Astronauts told to return to ISS after sheltering over air leak repairs

#21

Post by ocdtrekkie »

gwbas1c wrote: post #16

Maybe someone who knows more about the ISS than I do can answer this: Naively, I would assume that there are airlocks between the different sections of the ISS. I would also assume that they would close these airlocks while doing the kind of work they are doing to repair the leaks. So, assuming I'm right (and my assumptions might be wrong,) why do the astronauts need to shelter?

I think the service module is both structurally and functionally critical. If it is failing and you do not know why, catastrophic failure is presumably possible, not just some air loss. A hole or crack in the module is now apparently double the size it was until recently, that is a trend that presumably could continue to rapid unscheduled disassembly.

Re: Astronauts told to return to ISS after sheltering over air leak repairs

#22

Post by Polizeiposaune »

jmount wrote: post #4

I have to say worrying about the provenance of writing has made me a grumpier reader. For example: "The space station is made up of Russian and US segments, and there are modules from the European and Japanese space agencies too." It feels like this sentence is inserting some points, but is lacking in authorial intent. Is the intent to say the station is largely Russian and US, or to say the station has more than two…

It's complicated. The US Orbital Segment of the ISS consists of modules funded by and built in the US, ESA/Europe, and Japan.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/US_Orbital_Segment

Several of the US modules were built in Europe by Thales Alenia Space and were transferred to the US in exchange for the US launching the European modules on the Space Shuttle.

Re: Astronauts told to return to ISS after sheltering over air leak repairs

#23

Post by threwrfaway »

willy_k wrote: post #12
SoftTalker wrote: post #11

Imagine something like this happening halfway to Mars and zero chance of escaping, getting any help or parts sent to you.

There is less debris around on the way to mars and this is a known and worsening for the ISS due to its age.

A top (arguably, the top) metallurgist who studied previous failed parts told me it's corrosion of the Russian alloy used.

Corrosion is a hard problem in living quarters (ie moisture and salt) in space (sealed with no gravity)

Re: Astronauts told to return to ISS after sheltering over air leak repairs

#25

Post by himata4113 »

gwbas1c wrote: post #16

Maybe someone who knows more about the ISS than I do can answer this: Naively, I would assume that there are airlocks between the different sections of the ISS. I would also assume that they would close these airlocks while doing the kind of work they are doing to repair the leaks. So, assuming I'm right (and my assumptions might be wrong,) why do the astronauts need to shelter?

Compression loss can lead to a decompression of sorts if I had to guess... it is a vaccum out there. The force from a decompression can yield a chain reaction or strongly disrupt the entire station.

Re: Astronauts told to return to ISS after sheltering over air leak repairs

#26

Post by LPisGood »

Quitschquat wrote: post #14
SoftTalker wrote: post #11

Imagine something like this happening halfway to Mars and zero chance of escaping, getting any help or parts sent to you.

Recently started an embedded hardware/software job. Shipping firmware to the manufacturer feels like that for the device classes that have no internet.

Anything special you noticed about the deployment processes involved with that versus more typical software engineering work?

Re: Astronauts told to return to ISS after sheltering over air leak repairs

#27

Post by throw2ih020 »

gwbas1c wrote: post #16

Maybe someone who knows more about the ISS than I do can answer this: Naively, I would assume that there are airlocks between the different sections of the ISS. I would also assume that they would close these airlocks while doing the kind of work they are doing to repair the leaks. So, assuming I'm right (and my assumptions might be wrong,) why do the astronauts need to shelter?

> Naively, I would assume that there are airlocks between the different sections of the ISS.

There are not. The airlocks on the ISS are either docking modules for spacecraft, for spacewalks, or for deploying satellites.

The crew shelters in the vehicles so that in case of an emergency they can evacuate immediately.

Re: Astronauts told to return to ISS after sheltering over air leak repairs

#28

Post by summa_tech »

jmount wrote: post #4

I have to say worrying about the provenance of writing has made me a grumpier reader. For example: "The space station is made up of Russian and US segments, and there are modules from the European and Japanese space agencies too." It feels like this sentence is inserting some points, but is lacking in authorial intent. Is the intent to say the station is largely Russian and US, or to say the station has more than two…

I think it's an attempt to express that the station consists of only two segments: Russian (ROS) and US (USOS), but the US invited its allies to work together on its segment. So parts of the USOS are made in Europe, Canada and Japan, and generally lifted to space by the US, usually on the Space Shuttle.

(All this was pretty lucid of the US, but obviously the Russians did no such thing on their side. The Japanese even managed to get an ISS resupply mission launched on their own vehicle, which is no small achievement, and the ESA did a bunch of good science. And what would space be without the Canadarm :-)

Re: Astronauts told to return to ISS after sheltering over air leak repairs

#29

Post by kaicianflone »

I don’t have a dog in the fight but it’s super scary to think about for the astronauts and their families. This issue’s been going on for a while now. Surprised that there’s not more AI or robotics that could be utilized for such cases.

Rumors are that Elon gets spaceX to buy tesla so tele-operated Optimus robots do the hard space work from now on. Not a bad idea per se but I’m not educated on the topic. Curiosity has me asking if we really want humans to go to mars or in space at all.

Re: Astronauts told to return to ISS after sheltering over air leak repairs

#30

Post by sigmoid10 »

tedivm wrote: post #18
sigmoid10 wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seems like these structural integrity problems are always inside the Russian section. So if you're on a Russian mission to Mars, yes it would be reasonable to be worried. Otherwise this seems like a non-issue.

This is just not true. There have been leaks due to micrometers in just about every section of the ship at one point or another. A quick search pulls up examples of US modules having issues, especially around interfaces and seals. NASA had a whole investigation between 2018 and 2021 about the recurring issue.

This is just wrong. All serious issues that turned out to be safety concerns were in Russian modules. The 2018 leak you refer to here was in a Soyuz capsule and the 2021 leaks were in the Zvezda module (same place they are this time). In between there were also minor leaks in the Zvezda connection tunnel.
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