Russian spacewalk to inspect leak in Zvezda
The Russian spacewalk to inspect the outside location of the air leak in the Zvezda module on ISS has now been scheduled for November 18, 2020, and NASA will be providing a live stream.
Live coverage of the Russian spacewalk will begin at 8:30 a.m. EST on NASA Television and the agency’s website. The spacewalk is expected to begin about 9:30 a.m.
Ryzhikov, designated extravehicular crew member 1 (EV1), will wear a Russian Orlan spacesuit with red stripes, and Kud-Sverchkov will wear a spacesuit with blue stripes as extravehicular crew member 2 (EV2). This will be the 47th Russian spacewalk for assembly and maintenance of the station.
During the spacewalk, Ryzhikov and Kud-Sverchkov will first conduct leak inspections outside the hatch, as this will be the first spacewalk using the Poisk module for its purpose as an airlock. Next, they will relocate an antenna from another module, the Pirs docking compartment, to Poisk, the first in a series of tasks over the course of several spacewalks that will prepare Pirs for decommissioning, undocking, and disposal. The Earth-facing Pirs will be replaced by the new Russian Multipurpose Laboratory Module, named “Nauka,” Russian for “science,” which is being prepared for launch at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
What they find could have a significant impact on the future of the space station.
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The Russian spacewalk to inspect the outside location of the air leak in the Zvezda module on ISS has now been scheduled for November 18, 2020, and NASA will be providing a live stream.
Live coverage of the Russian spacewalk will begin at 8:30 a.m. EST on NASA Television and the agency’s website. The spacewalk is expected to begin about 9:30 a.m.
Ryzhikov, designated extravehicular crew member 1 (EV1), will wear a Russian Orlan spacesuit with red stripes, and Kud-Sverchkov will wear a spacesuit with blue stripes as extravehicular crew member 2 (EV2). This will be the 47th Russian spacewalk for assembly and maintenance of the station.
During the spacewalk, Ryzhikov and Kud-Sverchkov will first conduct leak inspections outside the hatch, as this will be the first spacewalk using the Poisk module for its purpose as an airlock. Next, they will relocate an antenna from another module, the Pirs docking compartment, to Poisk, the first in a series of tasks over the course of several spacewalks that will prepare Pirs for decommissioning, undocking, and disposal. The Earth-facing Pirs will be replaced by the new Russian Multipurpose Laboratory Module, named “Nauka,” Russian for “science,” which is being prepared for launch at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
What they find could have a significant impact on the future of the space station.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
So I thought the crack that they observed was on the inside of the Zvezda aft docking port? Now they are saying it is the Poisk module? That module is at the front on the zenith port of Zvezda.
Are there two leaks? I know, the Russians are not sharing the information.
Jay: I think you misread the info. They will be exiting using the Poisk airlock. Nothing that I see suggests the crack is on that module.
OK, when NASA-TV wrote “will first conduct leak inspections outside the hatch,” I thought that was one of the culprits. I stand corrected.
Jay: It is also possible that the crack was always in Poisk, but they have been unclear about it. They have said repeatedly that it was located in the “aft exit section” of Zvezda, which might be a vague way of referring to Poisk.
Either way, I am sure we are only talking about one crack, and that watching the spacewalk will help clarify these doubts about its location and cause.
I am surprised they can not photograph most if not all of the exterior with the maintenance arm.
Or even a reaction motored small sat.
pzatchok wrote: “I am surprised they can not photograph most if not all of the exterior with the maintenance arm.”
Most of the pressurized sections are covered in thermal protection blankets or other thermal material. To observe the outside of the structure likely requires that some of this material be peeled back a bit.
But they could tell if a hole was from an impact since it would have to go through the blankets also.
Hunt for Red October 1990
“Russians Don’t Take A Dump, Son, Without A Plan…”
https://youtu.be/YULytWUaKR0
0:27
pzatchok wrote: “But they could tell if a hole was from an impact since it would have to go through the blankets also.”
Perhaps, but could a camera spot a hole from a micrometeorite? Depending upon the material of the outer surface, a micrometeorite hole in the blanket may be hard to spot, even by an astronaut (cosmonaut). Either way, the object of the examination is to study any damage to the outside of the module, from whatever cause.
It has been weeks.
Something like this situation should have been imagined and a way to externally inspect the station should have been thought of years ago.
This is another failure of NASA to find and solution to a problem they could have even passed it off to a collage someplace.
They could have even kept a small sat drone inside the station and tested it inside before sending it outside.
And they a;ready have cameras on the end on the maintenance arm. Over the last 20 years they could have tested it to find out exactly what it could see.
I bet a nice infra-red camera(thermal) could see the escaping gas just fine.
@pzatchok, excellent idea regarding the thermal Camera!! But to be fair to NASA, the leak is in the Russian section, and to be fair to Russia, the tea bag solution to finding the leak was pure genius! ( Reminding me somewhat of the story of NASA spending a whole lot of money to develop a pen that works in zero G, and the Russians just using a pencil!)
pzatchok,
You wrote: “Something like this situation should have been imagined and a way to externally inspect the station should have been thought of years ago.”
They did imagine a puncture; they did imagine a way to inspect a hole or crack from the outside; and they are about to perform that action during a spacewalk that is already necessary for another purpose (two birds, one stone).
It is nice that your space station will have enough budget (financial, weight, power, etc.) to be able to do all things, but in this case, personal inspection is what they want to do. They are interested in the condition of the metal, not the air that is coming out from under the thermal protection.
They could have stuffed the funds for a small sat into the SLS funding since SLS will need one also.
They could have then had it in space and already been testing it.
Like it would take more than a single million dollars to design and manufacture a small sat with a few cameras on it.
Call it inflight external inspection equipment for the SLS and gateway.
Bang no budget problems.
pzatchok,
Why spend a million dollars when they can get better information for free during a routine spacewalk?