Space Station Slowly Falling Apart?

Yoda2 writes "MSNBC discusses debris apparently seen by the crew floating away from the International Space Station. From the article, 'Such debris may include fragments of insulation, labels and possibly important components.' Yikes! Many of these quotes seem appropriate."

Comments

Scotty quotes?

[American AC in Paris]

For the life of me, I can't comprehend why the editors front-paged a Geocities link. Special treat to subscribers, perhaps?

For those of you who can't get to it, don't worry--you didn't miss much. It's just a compilation of Scotty quotes, and contrary to the submitter's assertion, hardly any of them apply to the current situation.

Unless, of course, the ISS has warp drives.

Or is in the midst of battle with Klingons.

Re:Scotty quotes?

[Anonymous Coward]

Here's the geocities list before it exceeds its bandwidth:

"It fits like a glove, Captain." -- Scotty, Where No Man Has Gone Before, stardate 1312.4, Episode 2
"Even if we were under full scale attack I couldn't move any faster, not and maintain a safety factor." -- Scotty, The Naked Time, stardate 1704.2, Episode 7
"That was a pretty good gamble." -- Scotty, The Galileo Seven, stardate 2821.5, Episode 14
"I'd love to tear this baby apart." -- Scotty, Space Seed, stardate 3141.9, Episode 24
"The warp drive is a hopeless pile of junk." -- Scotty, The Doomsday Machine, stardate 4202.9, Episode 35
"The shape the thing's in it's hard to keep it from blowin'." -- Scotty, The Doomsday Machine, stardate 4202.9, Episode 35
"Laddie...don't you think you should...rephrase that?" -- Scotty, The Trouble With Tribbles, stardate 4523.3, Episode 42
"It's, uh, it's green!" -- Scotty, By Any Other Name, stardate 4657.5, Episode 50
"Any man who could perform such a feat, I wo'd na dare disappoint. She'll launch on time. And she'll be ready." -- Scotty, Star Trek: The Motion Picture
"It's borderline on the simulator, we need to do more tests." -- Scotty, Star Trek: The Motion Picture
"Just a minute, Exec, we're picking up the pieces down here." -- Scotty, Star Trek: The Motion Picture
"The engine imbalance is what caused the worm-hole in the first place. It'll happen again if we don't fix it." -- Scotty, Star Trek: The Motion Picture
"We can't take another attack." -- Scotty, Star Trek: The Motion Picture
"Just the batteries. I can give you inpulse power in a couple minutes." -- Scotty, Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan
"Aye. And if my grandmother had wheels, she'd be a wagon." -- Scotty, Star Trek III: The Search For Spock
"A chimpazee and two trainees could run her." -- Scotty, "Thank you. I'll try not to take that personally." -- Kirk, Star Trek III: The Search For Spock
"Scotty, you're as good as your word." -- kirk, "Aye sir, the more they overtake the plumbing, the easier it is to stop up the drain." -- Scotty, Star Trek III: The Search For Spock
"Aye. Warp drive standing by." -- Scotty, Star Trek III: The Search For Spock "I find it hard to believe I've traveled millions of miles..." -- Scotty, "...thousands..." -- McCoy, "...thousands of miles for an invited tour..." -- Scotty, Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
"A ship is a ship." -- Kirk, "Whatever you say...thy will be done." -- Scotty, Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
"I know this ship like the back of my hand (bonk)." -- Scotty, Star Trek V: The Final Frontier
"All I can say is...they don't make them like they used ta." -- Scotty, Star Trek V: The Final Frontier
"How many times da I have to tell ya...the right tool for the right job!" -- Scotty, Star Trek V: The Final Frontier
"Finding retirement a wee bit lonely, aren't we?" -- Scotty to Kirk, Star Trek VII: Generations
"I've given her all she's got captain, and I can't give her no more." -- Scotty, (Several Times)
"She won't take much more of this." -- Scotty, (Several Times)
"This jurry-rigging won't last for long..." -- Scotty, (Several Times)
"Are ya daft lad!!!" -- Scotty to Geordi LaForge, Relics
"NCC 1701. No bloody A, B, C, or D." -- Scotty yelling at the Enterprise-D's holodeck computer, Relics
"It's...it's... ... ...um, it's green." -- Data to Scotty, refering to an unmarked bottle of alcoholic content while with him in Ten Forward, Relics

It's not from the Space Station

[hcg50a]

The article clearly states the piece was from the Progress or Soyuz spacecraft docked to the Space Station. It is a part that locks down the solar panels on these craft.

Definitely ISS debris

[Buran]

Yes, it is station debris. The odds of anything passing within view of the crew is very, very small unless it came from the vehicle they are in. The kind of debris that is being talked about here (possibly launch stow clamps for Progress/Soyuz solar panels) is quite small and would be extremely difficult to see from greater distances. These parts are used to hold the solar panels in the folded position during ascent and are no longer needed once the spacecraft is in orbit and the panels unfold.

The station normally has a Soyuz docked (for crew escape) and a Progress docked (for resupply and refuelling and trash stowage.) That's four solar panels right there. In addition, the Russian station modules (except for the Pirs airlock) have their own solar panels, as they operated autonomously at first, and provided power to the US modules earlier in the assembly sequence before the larger US array was added.

The biggest worry is that one of these pieces could impact the station and damage it.

The real conclusion

[Zebra_X]

That first paragraph prented as the headline is a bit inaccurate. Basically the article goes on to explain that the part in question is part of an explosive bolt, read, disposable. The space station is not falling apart as out slashdot editors would have us believe.

Images of the object were sent to the Russians, and the boltlike object looked familiar. "Preliminary info from Moscow indicates that the eyebolt may be from the Soyuz solar arrays," the NASA report said. "Four of them are used to safe the [solar array] during launch with a hook mechanism, which is released via [explosive bolt] after insertion [into orbit]. The bolts are secured with a nut and a locking wire, and apparently one of them came free."

The same bolts are used both on the Soyuz crew transport spacecraft and on Progress, the Russian-built cargo-only ship. Both vehicles are currently docked at the station, and NASA sources said Tuesday the Russians now believe the piece actually came off the Progress, which arrived at the space station at the end of last month. In the past, during periods of strong rhythmic thumping on an exercise device, the solar arrays on docked Soyuz and Progress craft can be observed to jiggle.