Russian Leak Confirmed!

[Paratus]

No not that kind of leak this one:

Small Air Leak Detected on International Space Station
https://www.space.com/41676-space-station-small-pressure-leak.html

Astronauts at the International Space Station are working to repair a small leak that was discovered at the orbiting laboratory Wednesday night (Aug. 29). While the leak caused a slight drop in cabin pressure, it did not pose an immediate danger to the astronauts currently living aboard the station, NASA officials said.


Flight controllers on Earth began to notice changes in cabin pressure around 7 p.m. EDT (2300 GMT), while the six crewmembers of Expedition 56 were sleeping, NASA officials said in a statement today (Aug. 30).

Because the pressure loss was "very small," flight controllers determined that the astronauts and cosmonauts "are in no danger," officials with the European Space Agency (ESA) said in a separate statement. [Expedition 56: The Space Station Mission in Photos]...

...
They determined that the leak is in the Soyuz MS-09 spacecraft, which is docked at the Rassvet module on the Russian segment of the space station, Dmitry Rogozin, director general of Russia’s space agency Roscosmos, told Sputnik News. Rogozin told the Russian news agency that the crewmembers found a microfracture that may have been created by a micrometeoroid impact.

"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 officials said in a subsequent statement about the status of the repair work. "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."

Loss of atmosphere isn’t a good thing but looks like this is under control. Plus other stories have mentioned the leak is in a part of the Soyuz that doesn’t come back to Earth so it shouldn’t be a risk for crew return.

 

[Sunburn74]

No way I could be an astronaut. Too much engineering know-how needed.

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

Not about the pee pee tape.

 

[Fanatical Meat]

Words and stuff

 

[s0me0nesmind1]

Shweet, wife will be working late this week.

 

[Zorba]

Lol, speed tape repair on the ISS.

Glad it was a small issue.

 

[dank69]

Looks like a job for Flex Tape:

 

[s0me0nesmind1]

epoxy applied to the hole, as of now were gud git er done.

 

[Paratus]

Looks like a job for Flex Tape:

I’ve had a chance to train on the leak repair kits and one piece is just a hard shell with a rubber gasket. If you can find the hole on the pressure shell you just slap it on like in your gif. The difference in pressure will keep it in place.

Other patches are basically disks of tape with a bit of rubber in the middle to cover the jagged hole.

Lol, speed tape repair on the ISS.

We’ve used a lot of tape to temporarily repair stuff on the ISS.

 

[Zorba]

We’ve used a lot of tape to temporarily repair stuff on the ISS.

Doesn't surprise me, we use a lot of tape to repair stuff on airplanes too.

 

[NostaSeronx]

I SAWED THIS SPACE STATION IN HALF!

 

[woolfe9998]

Pinhole leaks are not a big deal. Can easily be patched before it's an issue.

Still, the ISS is getting pretty long in the tooth. Time for a bigger, better space station.

 

[trenchfoot]

Looks like a job for Flex Tape:

Every time I see that commercial I chuckle at how they explicitly avoid putting holes near the bottom of the containers holding the water where the increased water pressure in the container would render their adhesive patch totally useless.

They needed to apply the patch on the inside where water pressure would help the patch retain its position up to the point where catastrophic damage would occur to the material itself rather than the strength of the adhesive.

 

[Darwin333]

Pinhole leaks are not a big deal. Can easily be patched before it's an issue.

Still, the ISS is getting pretty long in the tooth. Time for a bigger, better space station.

Yeah, umm, how do you suppose we get it up there?

 

[woolfe9998]

Yeah, umm, how do you suppose we get it up there?

The same way we got the first one up, with rockets, in segments. The rockets are cheaper now, and if/when SpaceX finishes the BFR it'll be cheaper still.

 

[Paratus]

Pinhole leaks are not a big deal. Can easily be patched before it's an issue.

Still, the ISS is getting pretty long in the tooth. Time for a bigger, better space station.

Yeah, umm, how do you suppose we get it up there?

The ISS is certified for another decade or so currently.

Our next space station that’s under design is the Lunar Gateway

https://www.nasa.gov/feature/nasa-s-lunar-outpost-will-extend-human-presence-in-deep-space

 

[cytg111]

Shweet, wife will be working late this week.

What?

 

[cytg111]

The same way we got the first one up, with rockets, in segments. The rockets are cheaper now, and if/when SpaceX finishes the BFR it'll be cheaper still.

BFR... Damn I am contemplating making the trip to see the launch of that one..

 

[DigDog]

Yumm yumm tasty treason bait.

 

[hal2kilo]

epoxy applied to the hole, as of now were gud git er done.

Damn, I thought duct tape fixed everything.

 

[BoomerD]

https://bgr.com/2018/09/04/iss-hole-russian-energia/

It wasn’t long before a tiny hole was discovered in the Russian-built Soyuz spacecraft docked to the space station. The tiny opening was thought to be the result of damage from a micrometeorite, which isn’t unheard of, and the crew quickly came up with a plan to repair it. Now, days later, Russian space agency Roscosmos says the hole wasn’t made by Mother Nature, but by a person with a drill, and tensions are high.

No, this isn’t a Clue-like scenario where one of the six members of the current ISS crew is the baddie; Roscosmos believes the hole was drilled in the spacecraft prior to it ever leaving Earth, and they’re searching for the individual in the manufacturing process who is responsible for it.

Multiple unnamed sources have spoken with Russian media outlet RIA Novosti and hinted that an internal investigation at the corporation that builds the spacecraft, Energia, has already yielded results. According to those sources, the person has been identified and apparently explained that the hole was drilled by accident and not with malicious intent. A fabric seal was placed over the hole to hide the mistake, and it lasted a couple of months before eventually breaking open in space.

No word yet on what kind of punishment, if any, the individual will suffer, but sending a manned spacecraft into the sky with a hole in the side is obviously a pretty serious misstep.

Oops!

 

[Paratus]

https://bgr.com/2018/09/04/iss-hole-russian-energia/



Oops!

Yup, we saw the pics earlier and it looked man-made and not MMOD.

Generally when you have an MMOD hit the hole has what looks like inward facing petals and splatter:

(Whipple shielding test. The nice round hole is on the outside).

 

[MomentsofSanity]

You can see several attempts at drilling. Would anyone have been holding something up against the wall to drill it? I can’t see that being likely.

How odd that there could possibly be someone on the ISS that intentionally did this.

 

[Paratus]

You can see several attempts at drilling. Would anyone have been holding something up against the wall to drill it? I can’t see that being likely.

How odd that there could possibly be someone on the ISS that intentionally did this.

While we should wait for the official review this is almost certainly a manufacturing screw up that somebody tried to fix and hide.

Plus there’s almost no way an astronaut or cosmonaut could gather the tools, drill the hole, collect the shavings and put everything back without anyone noticing.

(What I see is someone who hand drilled and let the bit walk all over the place before it bit)

 

[trenchfoot]

While we should wait for the official review this is almost certainly a manufacturing screw up that somebody tried to fix and hide.

Plus there’s almost no way an astronaut or cosmonaut could gather the tools, drill the hole, collect the shavings and put everything back without anyone noticing.

(What I see is someone who hand drilled and let the bit walk all over the place before it bit)

Agreed. Upper right of the hole is what seems to me to be erosion marks left by the drill chuck spinning and rubbing up against the raised corner of that structure thus removing the coating and exposing bare metal. The angle of the hole matches where the drill chuck would have been. It may be that the drill operator ended up using that eroded corner to steady up the drill while attempting to drill the hole.

The witness marks that the drill bit made as it spun out of control from what appears to be multiple attempts at initially trying to penetrate the surface leads me to believe that the hole was made in haste, was not made to be put in a specific area on that surface and appears to have no valid reason to be there.

edit - forgot to mention (as a qualifier) I'm a toolmaker 30+ years experience w/ structural repair/maint experience on public transport vehicles, heavy equipment, ships and aircraft.