Comments on: New leak located in Zvezda on ISS

By: Edward

Edward — Tue, 26 Jan 2021 20:03:45 +0000

Milt,
Sadly, NASA is governed not by We the People but by government. They must respond to presidents and Congress, who often squander the knowledge, talent, and skills of the workers at NASA. Many people realized that NASA had been set on the wrong course when Sean O’Keefe, a bean counter, was put in charge of NASA. He was the first administrator, other than James Webb, who was not an aerospace person (engineer, scientist, astronaut). But we really should have seen it coming when Nixon abandoned space exploration after we reached the Moon., At that time, we should have realized that NASA was just a tool of the politicians, and that it had outlived their purpose for it. Instead, we spent another two decades thinking that NASA was going to use the Space Shuttle to open up space to commercial operations.

In the 1990s, the space community finally realized that NASA was not the answer to their problems but was an impediment, so they tried to find ways to commercialize space by bypassing NASA. One of the first tasks was to reduce the cost of access to space so that more businesses could use space and operate in space. This is what Peter Diamandis’s X-Prize was all about. Elon Musk came to the same conclusion in about 2000, when he discovered that private space probes to Mars were hard to do because the cost of access was so great. That is what his SpaceX company is all about.

Many others, including Bigelow, have been trying to reduce the cost of space exploration, but they have to overcome NASA’s set ways. Fortunately, some of those ways are being changed, but it is not fast, and Congress does not often go along with those changes. Reports are that commercial manned space was made possible because NASA agreed to SLS in exchange for Commercial Manned Launch Services. To fund commercial manned space, SLS had to be funded.

Government is not quite ready for commercializing space, and Bigelow seems to be one of those who suffers because of it.

By: Milt

Milt — Mon, 25 Jan 2021 16:57:46 +0000

Last night / this morning, Robert Bigelow really savaged NASA on Coast to Coast with guest host George Knapp. At the very end of his two hour interview, Bigelow — paraphrasing him as closely as I can remember — said that today’s NASA is not the same organization
that sent people to the moon, and they have become little more than government bureaucrats who care nothing for the value of other people’s time, technology, or money.

https://www.coasttocoastam.com/show/2021-01-24-show/

Mr. Bigelow went on to explain that aside from having his industry leading R&D efforts squandered by NASA (and competitors apparently getting sweetheart deals using technology that they have “borrowed” from his firm), he has filed (or is filing) lawsuits against against the agency for nonpayment.

Finally — a common theme, now — he expressed his frustration that if left to NASA, we will find Chinese settlements waiting for us on the Moon and Mars when Americans eventually arrive there.

All in all, a devastating critique of the Never A Straight Answer agency by one of the true pioneers of the Second Space Age. At the very least, Mr. Bigelow’s remarks need to be widely publicized.

By: Mike Kimm

Mike Kimm — Sat, 23 Jan 2021 19:00:50 +0000

First time commenter. As you all probable know everything seems weightless in microgravity but the mass still exists. When there is a lot of mass attached to these docking ports any small bump or thrust in the station will create a torque event at the coupler. That will flex the structure and eventually there will be cracks.

By: Cluebat

Cluebat — Sat, 23 Jan 2021 14:22:09 +0000

Yeah, I should have read before posting. I see now that is what is suspected here.
If it is something dynamic like that, we can correct it by installing dampers or flex couplings.
Probably something to consider monitoring on all of these types of structures. Only take a few daqs and a little programming.

By: Cluebat

Cluebat — Sat, 23 Jan 2021 14:13:52 +0000

I wonder if there is some structural dynamics going on here and causing stress fractures. Maybe start installing sensors and collecting/monitoring data.

By: wayne

wayne — Sat, 23 Jan 2021 01:39:20 +0000

Deep Space 9
Ep:1 Se:1 Emissary
“We’ll Move the Station, to the Wormhole
https://youtu.be/R0zAClx7l3M
2:00

By: David Eastman

David Eastman — Sat, 23 Jan 2021 01:30:08 +0000

Cygnus recently demonstrated the capability to do a station boost, so we have a backup for Progress on that side. But the US/International docking nodes are “fore” on the station, so they have to flip the station around to boost from that side, as opposed to Zvezda, which is “aft”. I don’t know if there is any reason other than having Zvezda in that position for which way the station points, so potentially they could just flip it permanently and stop using Zvezda for that at all.

By: Ray Van Dune

Ray Van Dune — Sat, 23 Jan 2021 01:03:18 +0000

SLSS… get on it, NASA.