Slow leak detected aboard Space Station

[snsr]

Apparently a 1.5mm puncture due to a meteor/debris strike in the Russian Soyuz MS-09 module.

More information:

http://blogs.esa.int/alexander-gerst/2018/08/30/slow-leak-de...

https://twitter.com/RussianSpaceWeb?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7...

http://www.russianspaceweb.com/soyuz-ms-09.html#leak

[village-idiot]

Makes sense. A manufacturing defect in a Soyuz would be extremely surprising, they have a very well respected safety record.

[sctb]

Thanks! We've updated the link from https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/ne....

[kevindqc]

How does it not happen more often?

[ambicapter]

Does that mean there is a little meteor hanging out somewhere in the module?

[Romanulus]

According to Russian sources, the problem was found in the Habitation Module of the Soyuz MS-09 spacecraft, where the crew detected two small cracks, reaching 1.5 millimeters in size. Alexander Gerst apparently first discovered the leak.

[swypych]

"The rate of the leak was slowed this morning through the temporary application of Kapton tape at the leak site."

In tape we trust!

I hope they show close ups!

[piinbinary]

The wikipedia page for Kapton [0] is interesting. "Kapton is a ... film ... that remains stable across a wide range of temperatures, from −269 to +400 °C"

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

[nimos]

Interesting that they don't seem to have any kind of dedicated "patch kit" ready to go for stuff like this.

[pcrh]

>Kapton tape

Is that duck tape for spaceships?

[asteli]

At 1.5mm, a piece of tape would come closer than you'd think to being a permanent fix...

The vacuum of space seems drastically hard to keep at bay, but consider that you're only holding in enough gas to replicate sea-level air pressure (nominally 14 PSI or so). A typical soda can is pressurized to between 30 and 50 PSI depending on temperature, beverage etc.

Supposedly the apollo command module had a pressure skin that was as thin as 0.012" (0.3mm) in places.

[userbinator]

I did a bit of searching and found that the ISS, along with Soyuz, are kept at sea-level atmospheric pressure (14.7PSI). This is unlike pressurised aircraft, which usually operate slightly below sea-level pressure at flying altitude.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cabin_pressurization#Spacecraf...

[alkonaut]

How do you find it, once you register that there IS a leak? Will there be a draft towards the hole? Or do they use an outside IR camera?

[asteli]

I heard a possibly apocryphal story about finding leaks in military transport aircraft -- they'd toss rolls of toilet paper around inside the craft and watch for it drifting toward and sticking to the inside of the fuselage. Apparently there was a particularly bad leak one time that simply ate the entire roll was consumed with a "FWUMP".

[tropo]

It might whistle, perhaps ultrasonically.

It might produce a tiny little thrust.

[jldugger]

If my FTL training is worth a damn, Just look for the rooms turning red the fastest.

[schiffern]

Binary search by closing doors and measuring the pressure drop? N-ary search if each module has its own barometer.

[pbrumm]

I don't think they could fit another video or unrelated image in that article.

Are people posting content here just to get the ads traffic?

[_verandaguy]

This is the official ESA website, they don't generate ad revenue AFAIK, or any revenue from their site directly.

[sitkack]

At 1.5mm dust could block that hole from the inside and _sufficiently large (epoxy) bandaid_ could patch it from the outside.

Edit, from twitter link, "... has been sealed temporarily by tape ..."

[cwkoss]

Interesting, I was thinking you could use the pressure differential to flow epoxy into the hole before sealing pressure to stop flow and heating to cure, but makes sense that an epoxy bandaid would probably do just as well - probably good enough to just slap that over the hole.

Will they apply to both inside and out? Will epoxy cure properly if totally exposed to the cold low pressure of space?

[thibran]

ISS Live Stream: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/live-iss-stream

[pcan77]

Sounds like they needed an inanimate carbon rod!

[joering2]

Has been fixed by now.

IF you have spare monitor going at your office/home, its fun to watch the ISS up to second tracking locations [1].

Fun fact I learned lately about ISS: at 400km above Earth's surface, the gravity is about 80% of a normal Earth gravity. The ISS is constantly falling down but because of Earth rotation it is falling "at the edge" so to speak so it never actually fell on the ground. Hope that make sense, I'm sure you read better explanation on Wiki.

[1] http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Human_Spaceflight/Internat...

[gbrown]

I prescribe you 20 hours of Kerbal Space Program as homework.

[evincarofautumn]

That is what orbits are, really. Just falling around a bend.

[ertand]

I wonder what the procedure to locate the leak was.

[rsync]

You spray soapy water all over the outside of the module and watch for any spots that start bubbling.

[LeoPanthera]

They use an ultrasonic detector that can hear the sound of gas being forced through a small hole.

[moneytide]

I've seen several of these "F-35 is a failure" articles over the past few years, and I have a new theory about it.

Making the opposition think you're weak is a strategy. Straight from Sun Tzu. Negative press propaganda is a tool in itself.

[chrishowlin]

Would the leak be enough to significantly change the trajectory of the station such that it needs correction?

Surely the force of the leak is very small compared to the size of the station, but if it had been leaking for a while the change could add up.

[mar77i]

I've heard that the whole construction up there has been getting leakier over time. I wonder what exactly the threshold is these days to constitute a "slow leak"...

[coldtea]

>I've heard that the whole construction up there has been getting leakier over time.

Obviously either that's false or the threshold is pretty damn high, since they have people in there for months on end...

[digi_owl]

Enough to register on sensors, not enough to trigger an immediate evacuation?

[kentiko]

"the hole is covered using Alexander Gerst's finger for now" - https://www.reddit.com/r/space/comments/9bi49u/the_iss_is_cu...

[jobserunder]

Does this mean water is rushing into the space (water) craft?

[m1573rp34130dy]

...perhaps a layer of self assembling/repairing nanoskin?...

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S167265291...

...or somthing similar

[m1573rp34130dy]

yup bad idea alright but i stick by it... maybe someone has a better or more germane solution than relying on an astronaut to find a leak and patch it up by hand, but the idea of preemptively mitigating leaks sounds better than waiting for a problem then correcting if it can be found...

[m1573rp34130dy]

i guess its a really bad idea :-D