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Space Station Leak Found, Fixed
Rommel writes "NewScientist.com is reporting that the cause of the leak in the International Space Station has been found and fixed. The leak was found in a hose in the Destiny lab module. The hose was used to equalize pressure and eliminate fog between two panes of a window. While the leak was so slow it was unlikely to pose a direct threat to the crew for months to come, some equipment on the ISS is only certified to operate above a certain air pressure. The leak was originally mentioned on Slashdot a few days back."
...as they now get to make "first leak in space" jokes.
If I was on the space station and there was a leak, that fucker would be found a lot sooner than a week.
.. but they used Bart's diamond earing, right?
Destiny was designed and made in the US.
I was looking forward to watching the ISS sputter around the sky like a deflating balloon with a couple astronaughts hanging on for dear life and screaming bloody murder.
-- "Government is the great fiction through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else."
That's one small step for duct tape, one giant leap for mankind.
some equipment on the ISS is only certified to operate above a certain air pressure.
such as the crew maybe?
according to the article .03 psi per day it doesnt seem that serious. they would have had 33 more days to find it atleast.
The station's air pressure had dropped from the normal 14.7 psi to 14.0 psi. NASA have emphasised that the crew's health was not in danger, but some onboard equipment, including an air monitor, is only certified for use above 13.9 psi
it would seem that things were pretty close. but keeping in mind that it was only losing
-caf
I really hate signatures, but go to my website.
the leak was really Carl Rove, right?
Now, had the leak been in a non-American-made part of the space station, I could have made a funny!
Remember, kids: it's not about being the best, it's about making fun of everybody else.
Obliteracy: Words with explosions
<blockquote>where can you go after you've been to the moon? </blockquote>
Well, you can always try to get into the... Paris Hilton!!
But seriously folks, I'll be here all week.
Try the veal.
I'm reminded of a recent "Freefall" (web comic).
proof, n. A demonstration that a conclusion is implied by certain premises and axioms.
Somehow almost everything they produce either has or makes holes.
> Destiny was designed and made in the US.
Fine. We'll fire all the foreigners who helped, and we'll make a new one.
We'll call it... Destiny's Child!
I'll be here all week.
Tip your waitress.
Yeah, but the hose was made in China.
...for telling the crew how to fix the leak using a roofing nail, some hair spray, and a roll of toilet paper.
The crew said they'd get right on it as soon as those supplies were delivered.
--
Generic Sig: End communication.
$7.95/mo, 200 GB disk, 2TBxfer, MySQL, PHP, RoR.
I guess it wouldn't have been practical to dip the whole station in a tub of water.
yeah, but it was fereners WITHING the US
You know...like people who's ancestors were from feren countries like England, Ireland, Germany, etc.
Yeah... If Destiny was only made by Native American Indians it wouldn't have leaked.
yeah whatever.
OMG! I was only 9 years old at the time, and while I remember the show, I had forgotten what it was called. Wasn't there an episode where they salvaged "Sputnik"? Wow! Thanks for helping me re-live a fond memory.
"The spacecraft has apparently been taken over - "conqured" if you will - by a master race of giant space ants. It's difficult to tell from this vantage point whether they will consume the captive earth men or merely enslave them. One thing is for certain: there is no stopping them; the ants will soon be here. And I for one welcome our new insect overlords. I'd like to remind them that as a trusted TV personality I could be helpful in rounding up others to toil in their underground sugar caves." - Kent Brockman
free ipod and free gmail!
> If Destiny was only made by Native American Indians it wouldn't have leaked.
You ever tried to breathe through buffalo skin?
That shiat's air-tight!
Crazy Horse on teh spoke!!!
I thought it was because those Russians left the door open after they argued over the sturgeon and tossed it out.
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
Childhood advice gone awry on Destiny: if you smell gas or hear a hissing noise, get out of the house.
Nothing but the finest in meaningless drivel
Sounds more like it was trying to equalize pressure between the space station and the vaccuum outside...
The Blaster Master Fighting for Truth, Justice, and Evil Pie since 1979
Let's hear it for the inanimate carbon rod!
CB
free ipod and free gmail!
See... they should have outsourced the QA work. Cost cutting on QA would mean death.
Well, that depends....do you have a girlfriend? If you do, watch out!
The hose was used to equalize pressure and eliminate fog between two panes of a window.
So.. someone left a window open?
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - The $1.4 billion U.S. Destiny lab opened for business at the International Space Station Sunday, cracking the hatch on a new era of scientific discovery that one day could lead to human expeditions beyond Earth orbit.
Heh...cracking the hatch....leak...funny.
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I - I took the one the bus load of girls just went down.
Here is another good article from The Austrailian with more details. The pressure rose from 13.92 psi to 14.11 psi when the leak was sealed.
The only thing on a space station that should leak, are its crew!
Awk! Pieces of eight. Pieces of eight. Pieces of seven... ERROR: General Protection Fault. [Paroty Error.]
So, did they plug the hole with an inanimate carbon rod?
Did they jettison half of the space station, or use bubble gum instead?
got sig?
I'm just wondering when they can repressurize the station? After all, even with the leak fixed it wouldn't be a great idea to leave it with the lower pressure.
another IIS leaked fixed... ...oh wait...
So rise up, all ye lost ones, as one, we'll claw the clouds.
an inanimate carbon rod!!!
I can see it now... crowds of people parading down the streets chanting 'In Rod We Trust' and 'Long Live the Rod!!'
err... wait... didn't I see that before?
Maybe 'All your rod are belong to us'?
Did they find the money leak that put this thing way over budget?
--- Ban humanity.
The hose was used to equalize pressure and eliminate fog between two panes of a window.
That's a pretty inhumane way to treat ladies of the oldest profession!
Tubal-Cain smokes the white owl.
When aboard the space station, use Scotch brand magic transparent tape to affix photos of loved ones to the wall. NEVER EVER EVER use push pins, even Scotch brand magic push pins.
Dave Open the pod bay doors, HAL.
HAL I'm sorry Dave, I'm afraid I can't do that.
Dave What's the problem?
CB
free ipod and free gmail!
I saw a Cops rerun over the weekend. They were dealing with an alligator on the loose. They called in a couple of alligator trappers, and guess what they used to clamp the alligator's jaw?
Duct tape.
When my wife saw that, she laughed and remarked that duct tape can fix anything.
HCG 50a = 2MASX J11170638+5455016
11h17m06.4s +54d55m02s
nobody laughed
Yeah. I met her last night. Her name's Lorena. I forget her last name, though.
Do you even lift?
These aren't the 'roids you're looking for.
*Don't* forget to reapply the patch after the next ISS service pack!
Just another memorable leak, found and patched. Good thing it wasn't in one of the windows, they'd have to relaunch the space station. :)
ls
Guesstimating from some info here, Denver, CO is ~12 PSI. A tall mountain in the US is ~10 PSI at the top.
Lousy, cheap NASA equipment! It wouldn't work down here on Earth anyways.
A witty [sig] proves nothing. --Voltaire
A replacement hose may be flown up to the station later in January on a Progress vehicle.
Egads, not even a spare hose. I guess it's a non-critical part but it still seems kinda lame.
It would be common sense that many of the hoses on various equipment would be the same. Then you'd have a bunch of spare hoses to repair all sorts of things. Or maybe I'm not thinking enough like an engineer.
The ratio of people to cake is too big
I think it's interesting that initially the Americans tried to point the finger of possibility at just about anything capable of leaking built by the Russians, who of course have a zillion more years of experience building these things than we do...
"Who are in control, they are not in control of anything - they don't even control themselves!" - Glen Beck
to pump some harmless/oderless colored gas through the station to just see where it was spewing out of? Their hightech tools, although they did work, are still not 100% fool proof.
Neither is my idea, but hey, how long would it take to run a colored gas through and then clear it out? A few hours maybe? I don't know. What do you think?
[sig]www.masterslate.org[/sig]
All that farting will soon bring the air pressure back up!
Guess they won't be Sucking Vacuum after all.
Peace,
-McD
"Given the pace of technology, I propose we leave math to the machines and go play outside." -- Calvin
"The leak was originally mentioned on Slashdot a few days back."
I'm sure NASA is thanking the slashdot community for being the "original" source of the leak information.
Anyone else find the last paragraph of that article a bit scary?
"The leak was made more worrisome because the main oxygen generator, which has been working only sporadically, failed again last week. Russian flight managers are designing a way to fix it this week with spare parts already on the station."
Shouldn't the OXYGEN generators be...oh I dunno...WORKING most of the time? Failed again last week reminds me of the infamous furnace fighting scene from a Christmas Story.
I can just see a Russian cosmonaut banging on it with a wrench cursing...
Apple free since 1990!
So where are the animated carbon rods, then?
Stop by my site where I write about ERP systems & more
...Otherwise: .03psi of air per day.
Engineer 1: We're leaking
Engineer 2: (thinking in head: hmmm, there's 1,418,550.14 pascals of air) What's the big deal? we have 129,000 years untill the air's all gone. Tell the astronauts to not worry about it.
Engineer 1: Makes sense to me. Let's get coffee.
-Bucky
The leak was made more worrisome because the main oxygen generator, which has been working only sporadically, failed again last week. Russian flight managers are designing a way to fix it this week with spare parts already on the station.
That... is just great.
- It is easier to fight for one's principles than to live up to them. - Alfred Adler -
Nazi.
You know you have a white elephant when the only news you hear are technical problems.
This wasn't just plain terrible, this was fancy terrible. This was terrible with raisins in it. - Dorothy Parker
This is in reference to Simpsons episode CABF03 The Great Money Caper.
Mir cosmonauts throw the sturgeon from the station in a fit of rage.... Read more here.
insert russian profanities
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I was reading a good page on low-pressure physiology (had to do witk HALO skydiving) where they did the calculations and figured out you're about equally screwed with or without O2 on Everest - if you don't bring O2, you're naturally sluggish and slow, but if you do, you have a hard time getting enough extra energy to make up for the extra weight you have to carry. There is a "sweet spot", but go very far outside of it and you might as well just breathe the thin air.
Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored. - Aldous Huxley
...even 133t coders at NASA forget to delete[]!
There are a huge number of yeast infections in this county. Probably because we're downriver from the bread factory.
99% of everything is sturgeon.
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
transmission, here it is: "pssssssssssss..."
well they were probably too busy patching M$ windows to notice they had a leak. (in case you dont know they run microsoft windows on ISS) probably ist the first time windows almost killed someone.......lol
Maybe I'm wrong, but I seem to remember that when the last shuttle disaster occured, there was no contingency for docking with the Space Station in case of trouble. That itself seems like a HUGE design flaw. I hope this is wrong, because it would mean that the shuttle could not rescue people trapped on the Space Station either.
."
Is it true that only spacewalks and cargo transfers occur between these two specific orbitals?
Yeah, a manned-mission to Mars is looking more feasible every day . . .
"HAL . .
"Yes Dave."
"We're screwed - Set the controls for the heart of the sun."
Stuff that matters.
I have a problem with the idea of Oxygen 'generators'. How do they work? Adding a few neutrons and electrons to some Nitrogen atoms?
Or maybe they just synthesise material Oxygen atoms from pure energy?
Imho the article should have said "Oxygen supplies", or perhaps meant CO2 scrubbers (lithium-hydride? filters). Afaik there's no such thing as an Oxygen generator that doesn't involve biotech (plant photosynthesis) in some way.
Alexander Yurievich Kaleri: Special Honors: Hero of the Russian Federation
[Insert Soviet Russia Jokes Below]
[Fuck Beta]
o0t!
some equipment on the ISS is only certified to operate above a certain air pressure
Yeah. For example, my lungs are only certified to operate above a certain air pressure.
With reduced pressure, the thermal capacity of the cooling air is proportionally reduced. Combined with changes in forced air flow and microgravity not creating convectional cooling, you can have long-term overheating issues with equipment that consumes very little power.
This is solved on satellites with conductive cold/hot plates, but that results in much heavier equipment.
Regarding leakage rates, it's very difficult to estimate leak flow rates. The flow might be proportional to pressure squared, or cubed. If it's in an elastic seal, it may completely re-seal when the pressure drops to a specific level.
Humans can function at elevations of about 5psi (see the other posts about mountain climbers), and survive on a little less. Since O2 is less than 20% of the atmosphere, you can theoretically live on 1psi of pure O2. But secondary effects are killers at that low pressure, such as keeping enough moisture in the lung tissue. When near-pure O2 is used, it is usually at about 3psi or nearly the partial pressure of O2 at sea level.
Maybe they should have used nitrogen or helium to up the partial pressure as needed?!!
SILLY ASSES.
changelog
2004012 08:37
* [patch] leak found in a hose in the Destiny lab module
* [bug fix] Jeannie has recovered from the flu
* [driver update] Marty is the new pilot
The score is now:
ISS 1
White House 0
I have a problem with the idea of carbon dioxide 'scrubbers'. How do they work? Do they have a little brush that actually scrubs eact CO2 molocule?
I meant to post that under the "Everest catch-22" post.
Hot Damn! It's the Soggy Bottom Boys!
I think you failed to read the article, this product wasn't sucking...
Dear MacGyver,
Enclosed are a paper clip, a drinking straw, and a rubber band. Please save my dog.
Peter Griffin
I find it funny that xenophobes like you used the original Slashdot story to engage in bashing Russia, Japan and the other international partners involved in the ISS.
Isn't it amazing how, now that the leak has been shown to have come from a US-built module, none of those other morons have much to say about how "inferior" US standards have caused this problem whereas they were all so quick to jump on the foreigner-bashing bandwagon and condemn the "inferior" of Russia, etc as being the cause even before the leak was traced to its origin?
Please, this shit isn't even funny. So can we cut the "inept Russians" jokes now?
"Accept that some days you are the pigeon, and some days you are the statue." - David Brent, Wernham Hogg
I refer all readers to the Geek Heirarchy.
Freedom: "I won't!"
You probably missed the Simpsons episode where the sturgeon incident took place. Flame away!
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
Not all of the shuttles are/were unable to dock with the ISS, it was specifically the Columbia that couldn't because it was too large(heavy?).
The rest of the fleet is fully capable of docking with the ISS.
Uh, whatever dude. Anthropomorphs have been in sci-fi forever. Hello Chewbacca? Ewoks? Kzinti? The geek hierarchy is getting stale. ;pppp
Getting around in space isn't like getting around a subway system. You can't just jump orbits. You have to know where you're going, and go there at launch, when you're pouring the enormous impulse into the vehicle. The ISS is at a very high inclination orbit in order to be reached by both Russian and American launch facilities. This orbit is a very "expensive" one in terms of energy at launch. Which means less payload.
Space is a very, very big place, and the shuttle (like any space vehicle that isn't mostly fuel) is just a big projectile. You shoot it very fast, very high, and just let it fall around the earth. It can't just pull up and meet with the station without a lot of fuel. You have to aim for it from the start.
-twb
cosmonaut 1: You did it!
cosmonaut 2: I did it? YES! YES! I did it! I am true Russain hero!!!
The whole nationalist issue is a sick idea which has caused many silly conflicts.
Many of us have been working in more than one country, and that percentage is sure to increase with better transportation etc. Nationality is less and less important.
E.g: Does it make me 1/39'th french that I've lived and worked a year in France?
My brother worked a year in Hungary and his family lived there too, does this make his kids 1/6'th and 1/3'rd Hungarian?
-- From Denmark
Thanks for that reply. I was told once that it was about $10,000 a pound to put stuff in orbit. What you relate as a need for much more fuel issues, in addition to precision issues, certainly drives the point home that these people ARE risking their lives a GREAT DEAL MORE than people such as myself realize.
Stuff that matters.
Link
Yes Francis, the world has gone crazy.
When the cargo ship crashed into Mir while testing automated docking routines, Michael Foale's ears popped from the falling air pressure. Leaks are much easier to find with rushing air and popping ears.
It's like tires. When you have a blow-out, it is easy to see but a slow leak may go undetected for weeks until it overheats on that long trim to the relatives place for the holidays.
$#!^ happens, but why does it always have to happen to me???