Saturday, October 12, 2024
Contact    |    RSS icon Twitter icon Facebook icon  
Unexplained Mysteries
You are viewing: Home > News > Space & Astronomy > News story
Welcome Guest ( Login or Register )  
All ▾
Search Submit

Space & Astronomy

NASA discovers leak aboard the space station

By T.K. Randall
August 30, 2018 · Comment icon 14 comments

The leak does not pose a risk to the station's crew. Image Credit: NASA
Astronauts have been working to locate and seal a small leak that has opened up aboard the orbiting outpost.
According to reports, flight controllers on Earth first noticed that something was up when they detected a slight drop in cabin pressure on Wednesday evening at around 7 p.m. EDT.

Upon waking, the crew quickly got to work hunting down the location of the leak.

The culprit, it turned out, was the Soyuz MS-09 spacecraft currently docked at the station.
It appeared as though a small meteorite had punched a hole through its hull.

"The leak has been isolated to a hole about two millimeters in diameter in the orbital compartment, or upper section, of the Soyuz MS-09 spacecraft," NASA said in a statement. "The rate of the leak was slowed this morning through the temporary application of Kapton tape at the leak site."

"Flight controllers are working with the crew to develop a more comprehensive long-term repair."

Fortunately the leak doesn't appear to be serious and does not pose a risk to the crew.

Source: Independent | Comments (14)




Other news and articles
Recent comments on this story
Comment icon #5 Posted by Waspie_Dwarf 6 years ago
How would a micro-meteoroid cause a fire?
Comment icon #6 Posted by Waspie_Dwarf 6 years ago
Only when there is six crew. When three crew return home there is just one Soyuz until the next compliment arrives, then there are two again. Each Soyuz can only hold 3 crew. When the ISS is fully manned it would need both Soyuz to evacuate.   Yep.   No redundancy at all, whether there is one or two (or in a few very rare cases three) present. It costs several tens of millions of dollars tomalunch each astronaut/cosmonaut. It is simply too expensive to have extra Soyuz seats available.   Are you going to present evidence for this or are you just guessing? Of course you won't present evidenc... [More]
Comment icon #7 Posted by John Allanson 6 years ago
Now, you'd have thought some bright bugga, would have the foresight to pack a patch or two in the event of a micrometeor strike!? I mean, it's not as if things are whizzing about up there at great speed or anything!
Comment icon #8 Posted by Waspie_Dwarf 6 years ago
 
Comment icon #9 Posted by Waspie_Dwarf 6 years ago
They did, the hole is patched.
Comment icon #10 Posted by John Allanson 6 years ago
Got that Waspie_dwarf, they described it as a bit of tape that isn't doing the job of a proper patch and engineers are working on a solution. A bit of prethought would have a properly, lab tested, fully function patch in the hold for just such occasion.
Comment icon #11 Posted by taniwha 6 years ago
Friction.
Comment icon #12 Posted by Waspie_Dwarf 6 years ago
What, you mean in the same way that people that have been shot always burst into flames? Oh, hang on a minute, they don't. There is very little friction. On impact the micro-meteoroid will pretty much vaporise. Since it is tiny the amount of energy that it releases will also be tiny.
Comment icon #13 Posted by keithisco 6 years ago
To "vaporise" requires total conversion of kinetic energy to heat. In this case aluminium has a vaporisation temperature of 2327C and releases 10530kJ/kg energy. It is the environmental characteristics that will determine whether high temperature oxidisation takes place. Friction in such a scenario is of course very high breaching the mechanical integrity of the molecular bonds that leads to vaporisation.
Comment icon #14 Posted by Jon the frog 6 years ago
Well don't need to be rude  ?  I'm not always here on the forum and it's not a personal attack against you. 1) Soyuz are quite rugged, Resisting reentry need a rugged aircraft... They have done ballistic reentry with the servie module stuck on with faulty explosive bolt. So it's rugged. Can the ISS do that ? nope but  ISS and Soyuz are two totally different type of machinery, but one is expandable, the other not. ISS need to be build for the long term. The Soyuz is build to go back to earth while keeping is load in one piece. Expandable mean they can trow it away and the Russian will bring... [More]


Please Login or Register to post a comment.


Our new book is out now!
Book cover

The Unexplained Mysteries
Book of Weird News

 AVAILABLE NOW 

Take a walk on the weird side with this compilation of some of the weirdest stories ever to grace the pages of a newspaper.

Click here to learn more

We need your help!
Patreon logo

Support us on Patreon

 BONUS CONTENT 

For less than the cost of a cup of coffee, you can gain access to a wide range of exclusive perks including our popular 'Lost Ghost Stories' series.

Click here to learn more

Top 10 trending mysteries
Recent news and articles