Air leak continues despite repairs on Zvezda module of ISS
According to a report today in the Russian press, the air in the Zvezda module of ISS continued to leak away slowly during a test, following this week’s repair of two cracks in the module’s hull.
At about 07:00 GMT on Saturday, ISS cosmonaut Sergei Ryzhikov told a specialist at the Mission Control Center, located near Moscow, that the pressure in the intermediate chamber of the Zvezda module was 678 millimetres of mercury. The pressure stood at 730 millimetres of mercury on Friday evening, right after the hatch of the compartment was closed. Thus, the pressure in the chamber decreased by 52 millimetres of mercury over 11.5 hours.
Based on the thorough nature of the two repairs, this leak must be coming from another very tiny leak that has not yet been detected. Though the leak is very slow and thus not an immediate threat to the astronauts on board, it suggests once again that the leaks are coming from stress fractures resulting from Zvezda’s 20-plus years in orbit. If so, the problem is very serious indeed. Zvezda is the central module for ISS. Replacing it will not be simple or easy.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
According to a report today in the Russian press, the air in the Zvezda module of ISS continued to leak away slowly during a test, following this week’s repair of two cracks in the module’s hull.
At about 07:00 GMT on Saturday, ISS cosmonaut Sergei Ryzhikov told a specialist at the Mission Control Center, located near Moscow, that the pressure in the intermediate chamber of the Zvezda module was 678 millimetres of mercury. The pressure stood at 730 millimetres of mercury on Friday evening, right after the hatch of the compartment was closed. Thus, the pressure in the chamber decreased by 52 millimetres of mercury over 11.5 hours.
Based on the thorough nature of the two repairs, this leak must be coming from another very tiny leak that has not yet been detected. Though the leak is very slow and thus not an immediate threat to the astronauts on board, it suggests once again that the leaks are coming from stress fractures resulting from Zvezda’s 20-plus years in orbit. If so, the problem is very serious indeed. Zvezda is the central module for ISS. Replacing it will not be simple or easy.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
I hope someone on the ground is taking this seriously. I’m no expert but an increasing leak rate may be the result of a propagating stress fracture. Given the criticality of the module, what if any analysis has been done or is in work to quantify the risk of a catastrophic failure.
@pawn…. Hopefully greater minds than ours are on the case! I’m sure I’m not alone in having quality tools, both forged and cast which supplied excellent service for multiple decades until they failed catastrophically and splintered into bits…. The point you bring up is worrying indeed!
@pawn, I’m also adding on and hoping that you’re wrong. Not as a personal attack on you, but more because IF (and that’s a heavy IF) the ISS has such a catastrophic failure it’ll be a huge black eye for manned spaceflight as a whole.
OT – I predict that the modified nose cone recently observed for SN-15 is to accommodate a remotely-triggered connect / disconnect mechanism between this StarShip and the Bluto / Tankzilla crane, replacing the “Squid”.
In addition to the fact that man-lifts that can reach the top of an SH/SS stack are insane, if not impossible, there is the fact that using a person in a man-lift to reconnect the crane to the tip of an unstable landed SS (like SN-10) is foolhardy. I was relieved when SN-10 blew up, and I’ll bet some folks at SpaceX were too!
What is the chance that the Russians are just trying to keep this old girl flying long enough for China to launch its station? Then they leave the rest of the ISS owners with a big repair bill. Given the limited lufetime, the recent rental price hikes by NASA would make a lot of sense. Think real estate hardball. Time to read the fine print.
jh