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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

#81

Post by drysine »

sigmoid10 wrote: post #13
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.

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.

>Otherwise this seems like a non-issue.

Except you forgot to mention an epic leak in Destiny just three years after it was attached to the ISS: "At its highest rate, the station was leaking about 5 pounds of air per day overboard." [0] Imagine that happening on the 4th year of American Mars mission.

Also, if you on American mission to Mars, it would be reasonable to worry about cooling system dying mid-flight requiring three spacewalks to fix it: "We'd lose cooling capability to half of the electronics on the U.S., European and Japanese part of the space station." [1]

[0] https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna3882962

[1] https://spaceflightnow.com/news/n1007/31station/

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

#82

Post by numpad0 »

basch wrote: post #45
Polizeiposaune wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are normally-open air-tight hatches between modules. Various utility connections and air ducts are normally run through the open hatches so it would take a bit of work to disconnect these connections before they could be closed. Not exactly something you want to be doing under time pressure.

What’s the reason against separate conduit for utilities?

They just didn't have enough of reserved general purpose connections for future use. I guess this woild be especially the case with the Russian modules, which were literally surplus Soviet manned space army outposts(such a thing do not make a lot of sense, they did it anyway).

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

#83

Post by mandevil »

ck2 wrote: post #65

Do they have things like Oxygen Candles or can those not be used in space?

They were definitely used on Mir- in 1997 one caught fire, blocking the crew's access to their escape Soyuz, though they put it out.

It looks like NASA helped redesign it to be safer, creating the modern Solid Fuel Oxygen Generator (SFOG) system still in use on the ISS as the backup.

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

#85

Post by HWR_14 »

threwrfaway wrote: post #42
sigmoid10 wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

If you count the Soyuz leak, then the Boeing counts too! That was far more serious than anything you listed. Two astronauts stranded for nine months taking the ISIS supplies intended for others. This is after they safely docked, which was considered risky at the time.

The Boeing mission was scrubbed out of an abundance of caution. IIRC, nothing bad actually happened.

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

#86

Post by lightedman »

smilespray wrote: post #76
hgoel wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ideally your Mars transit vehicle hasn't been taking 90 minute heating and cooling cycles nonstop for 26 years.

Interesting thought. Isn't it possible to design around this? Surely this was considered when building the first modules.

You can design around a lot of stuff but what you encounter in orbit will ultimately laugh at that bandage and eat it away. AtOx, hard UV, and radiation levels you don't get on Earth just have their way with everything in orbit over time.

You don't get the AtOx going to mars but you have everything else which will utterly take its toll on a traveling craft.

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

#87

Post by numpad0 »

ordu wrote: post #64

Can't they just get things out of the module and paint it fresh? Maybe with some special paint, or with several layers of a paint? Obviously they can't, it looks like an obvious solution they couldn't have missed. But I wonder why it is impossible to do.

yeah, why can't they just make astronauts wear goggles, then stop the fans, and tell them to squirt some superglue in the air to let it clog the hole?

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

#88

Post by focusedone »

ck2 wrote: post #65

Do they have things like Oxygen Candles or can those not be used in space?

Yes and I believe they do regularly use them on the Russian side, at least.

They were also the cause of a fire on Mir. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mir_EO-23

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

#89

Post by hgoel »

SoftTalker wrote: post #79
hgoel wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ideally your Mars transit vehicle hasn't been taking 90 minute heating and cooling cycles nonstop for 26 years.

Well one side will be facing the sun and the other will be facing the void, so there might be similar issues.

IIRC during transit you'd want as much mass between you and the Sun (as shielding), and as small of a cross section facing the Sun. Probably also to reduce heat reaching the propellants.

So in a cylindrical ship you'd want to have one end pointing at the Sun most of the trip. This is, of course, very different in effect on the hull compared to the repeated expansion and contraction of heating cycles.

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

#90

Post by drysine »

summa_tech wrote: post #28
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…

>but obviously the Russians did no such thing on their side

Why obviously?

The USSR invited cosmonauts from all over the world to fly and work at the Salut-6, Salit-7 and Mir stations.[0]

That's France, Britain, Austria, Japan, India, Soviet block countries, Mongolia, Vietnam, Syria and Afghanistan.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interkosmos

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