Chemical Leak on ISS

Random Utinni writes "It looks like the Russian Elektron system on the ISS may be causing problems again. Today the crew discovered potassium hydroxide leaking into the space station. This comes right after delivery of new ISS components and right before the arrival of a new crew and first female space tourist."

Comments

kudos to the austronauts and cosmonauts

[leanweb]

one has to admire their quiet selfless heroism.

Re:kudos to the austronauts and cosmonauts

[rackhamh]

one has to admire their quiet selfless heroism.

Buddha would have made a great astronaut.

Re:kudos to the austronauts and cosmonauts

[ScentCone]

one has to admire their quiet selfless heroism

Quiet? OK, I guess. Heroism? Certainly courage, anyway. Selfless? Why toss that word out there? It doesn't mean anything in this context. They have a completely selfish reason to work through this problem gracefully: survival, and some lessening of their discomfort while this thing gets mopped up. What choice do they have? They (themselves) chose to get involved with the program each for their own reasons. This is the sort of risk they knew they'd face, and they're carrying on with some quality stoicism, here, not martyrdom or an abandonment of themselves in face of some difficulty. There are thousands of people who would jump at the chance to do exactly what those folks are doing - and "selflessness" has got nothing to do with it.

Re:kudos to the austronauts and cosmonauts

[Schemat1c]

Buddha would have made a great astronaut.

Nah, too fat.

Re:kudos to the austronauts and cosmonauts

[IDontAgreeWithYou]

From Wikipedia:

Athletic and fit throughout his life, competent in martial arts such as chariot combat, wrestling, and archery, and later easily hiking miles each day and camping in the wilderness. Images of a fat "Jolly Buddha" or Laughing Buddha are actually depictions of either Maitreya the future Buddha (Chinese Mile Fo), or a 10th century Chinese monk, Budai Heshang (Japanese Hotei)

obligatory

[sporkme]

In Soviet Russia, potassium hydroxide breathes you!

Fron TFA:
"NASA declared a spacecraft emergency for only the second time in the eight-year history of the station. The first time was for a false alarm of an ammonia spill."

That is a fantastic track record for an environment in a constant state of upgrade, falling perpetually at 17000 miles per hour. Nevermind the flammable nature of the atmosphere that surrounds overworked electronics and the parade of "space tourists." Ever have a visiting family member flush a broken toilet?

Re:obligatory

[Decaff]

falling perpetually at 17000 miles per hour.

How is this a factor? It is in orbit, and relatively stable. It is not as if it is blasting rockets to keep that speed, or rushing through atmosphere at that speed.

Just standing still anywhere on the equator, a human is moving at 1040 miles per hour..... is our survival somehow an achievement as a result?

Re:obligatory

[Decaff]

If falling perpetually at 17000 miles per hour is so easy, lets see you do it!

I already am - far faster in fact. So are you. That is the Earth's orbital velocity around the Sun.

Consider these. Supply missions and such have to achieve this velocity, too.

Yes, but that is their problem, not the space station's. Now it has this velocity, it is relatively stable.

There is a lot of manmade debris, not to mention natural hazards.

Yes, but not much physical stress.

Orbiting the Earth is not a simple groove in which the ISS slides by day in and day out.

Actually, that is precisely what it is! It requires very little energy to maintain.

Orbit is a carefully calculated and obsessively maintained state of teetering on escape from gravity and orbital collapse into the atmosphere; thus, the orbit is a stressful, chaotic, dangerous and relatively unpredictable state for a floating flophouse.

No, it isn't. It is very predictable indeed; so predictable it can be used for some of the finest measurements. Orbits are not a fine balance. Once in orbit, it is very hard to remove something from it. Put lots of energy in an you simply change the dimensions of the orbit - it certainly is nothing like 'teetering on escape from gravity' - that would require phenomenal energy input, as would a quick collapse of orbit. The only problem is a slow decay of orbit due to friction from the remnants of atmosphere at the altitude of the ISS.

Care to belittle the program a little more, doctor? Go ahead and make another comparison between standing on the earth and venturing into space.

I am not belittling the space program - I am a very enthusiastic supporter, and seem to be one of the few left who still think the ISS is a good idea.

What I object to is bad reporting of science.

first female space tourist

[QuantumG]

meh. Helen Sharman kinda predates her by 15 years. Not to mention the fact that neither actually like the term "space tourist" and have claimed they are the first such.

Re:first female space tourist

[FleaPlus]

Helen Sharman kinda predates her by 15 years. Not to mention the fact that neither actually like the term "space tourist" and have claimed they are the first such.

Indeed. It seems that people want to use the term "space tourist" for anybody that pays their own way, rather than having the government pay for them (or in the case of Helen Sharman, having a consortium of British companies pay for her). I don't think anybody would've called the partipants in the ill-fated Teacher in Space Project tourists, even though their primary purpose would've been an outreach role similar to that Anoushseh Ansari is fulfilling.

Re:first female space tourist

[QuantumG]

It could have earned some money that Rutan could have put into making his SpaceShipTwo, and further stimulated the market to encourage others to do the same. Instead, what it did was quiet the market and force people to write yet-another-business-plan.

Hrmm, Mir?

[HatchedEggs]

Does anybody know what kinds of problems they encountered with the Mir? I know that it is not exactly applicable to this situation, just was curious.

I t0o second that the ISS has a remarkable track record considering just what it is. A man made object that has to house several people 24/7/365 in space.

It does seem like the Elektron system has had some problems though. I wonder if after all this any member nations will chip in for a new model.

Re:Hrmm, Mir?

[dbIII]

Does anybody know what kinds of problems they encountered with the Mir? I know that it is not exactly applicable to this situation, just was curious.

I recall the oxygen generation unit on Mir had the same name and had some problems at various points - the book "Dragonfly" about NASA crew members experiences on Mir has something about it.

Re:Hrmm, Mir?

[TubeSteak]

Does anybody know what kinds of problems they encountered with the Mir? I know that it is not exactly applicable to this situation, just was curious.

IIRC, most of the problems on the ISS have been a result of American craftsmanship.

The Russia built stuff is more primitive, but also a lot sturdier.

It does seem like the Elektron system has had some problems though.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5953450/
Sept 10, 2004
"The three Elektron units on board the space station are the last of their kind. The company that manufactured them has gone out of business, and the engineer who almost single-handedly made the final adjustments of flight units died several years ago. Reportedly he retained some "trade secret" about the final adjustments of the devices -- and it died with him.
...
The current unit was installed earlier this year [2004], and began experiencing unwanted bubbling and consequent automatic shutdowns about two months ago. The shutdowns have been growing more and more frequent. For the two previous units, the same pattern of more and more frequent shutdowns was followed by a hard failure. The unit's design lifetime was originally one year."

Like many things in the space program, the Elektron units have been pushed waaaay beyond their rated lifespan & nobody has the original specs to build new ones.

TFA I liked above mentions that "Three completely redesigned units are currently in production," but says that getting them tested and certified is an open question, considering the state of the Russian space program.

Re:Hrmm, Mir?

[soft_guy]

IIRC, most of the problems on the ISS have been a result of American craftsmanship.

You mean it was made in a rented factory in China?

Re:Hrmm, Mir?

[stevesliva]

The Russia built stuff is more primitive, but also a lot sturdier.

I like how you support this claim with evidence to the contrary.

Re:Hrmm, Mir?

[DerekLyons]

IIRC, most of the problems on the ISS have been a result of American craftsmanship.
 
The Russia built stuff is more primitive, but also a lot sturdier.

You don't recall correctly - as Elektron has had ongoing problems for several years now.
 
 

The [Elektron] unit's design lifetime was originally one year.

And the currently installed unit is the third such unit to be installed on the ISS. Each of the units only lasted as long as they did through heroic repair efforts - not by any intrinsic robustness of the Russian design. (The current unit in fact has had considerable problems over the past year - consuming many man hours in maintenance and repair.)

Looks like they'll need another safety sign.

[bobdotorg]

We all remember the tense few days tracking down the sulphur leak that lead to the conspicuous posting of
this sign.

On the Plus Side...

[moehoward]

You know, I just love the fact that Anousheh Ansari is up there. It has been so long since we've had such inspiration, imagination, and determination in the space program. Heck, even of all the space programs going on these days in the world. Her presence there is inspirational and has really captured the imagination of my kids and their friends. Simply wonderful to see that look in their eyes that I must have had in the Apollo days. A woman who paid a prize to go to space also paid for her own trip up there. Just for the fun of it! And to boot, with all that is going on in the world, she is of Iranian descent. I mean, come on. If we can't feel good about this and make some "nice" over it, then we should really be ashamed of ourselves.

This is just fantastic. Thank you, Anousheh.

Potassium Hydroxide

[Anonymous Coward]

The crew first reported smoke but it turned out to be an irritant, potassium hydroxide, leaking from an oxygen vent, Suffredini said.

Would that make their original story a caustic lye?

Re:Potassium Hydroxide

[Anonymous Coward]

With Soviet purifier, station takes leak on you!

Space Station and Shuttle, against the Sun

[lecithin]

A bit off topic, but I just saw this and thought I would share:

http://www.astrosurf.com/legault/iss_shuttle.jpg

It is just amazing the amount of detail that can be seen from the earth.

Re:Space Station and Shuttle, against the Sun

[AJWM]

That's gotta be the strangest shaped sunspot I've ever seen. ;-)

Re:Space Station and Shuttle, against the Sun

[AxminsterLeuven]

That's no sun! It's a space station!

Value of ISS

[CRMeatball]

While the ISS is certainly an engineering and political achievement, one has to wonder about the actual value of the ISS. NASA is spending massive amounts of money to build it, at the expense of funding critical science research. It is also causing them to ignore the fact that within 5 years, more than 1/4 of NASA's workforce is going to retire. Seeing that it is usurping all of NASA's resources, it makes me wonder, Is it really worth it? It reminds me of something I heard about a year or so ago. A retired Russian cosmonaut was speaking about about the ISS. He said "The international space station is like a nice piece of luggage that does not have a handle. It is totally worthless, but a pity to leave behind."

Damn Microsoft

[ArsonSmith]

Everytime I log on to slashdot there is always something. This time "Critical leak in IIS" no wonder nobody ever reads the articles or even the blurbs.

My god slasdot is nothing more than an MS bashing site these days.

Anousheh Ansari official blog, other details

[FleaPlus]

For those of you curious about such things, the X Prize (which Anousheh Ansari funded) is hosting an official Anousheh Ansari Space Blog. Before her launch, Anousheh posted some descriptions of her pre-launch training and her thoughts on going to space. There's also some commentary from Peter Diamandis, the founder of the X Prize.

Some other interesting bits of info:

* She's carrying a small carbon-fiber piece of Burt Rutan's SpaceShipOne up with her into orbit.

* According to an interview with MSNBC's Alan Boyle, she had initially planned on bringing some science projects up with her, but this was scratched when the launch date was suddently bumped from being 1-2 years to being a few months away. However, she's purchased some datalink time in order to do live communications with groups at MIT and Google.

* Her company Prodea is working with the Russian space agency and Space Adventures to build a suborbital spacecraft which will launch out of spaceports in the UAE and Singapore.

* She rathes dislikes the term "space tourist." From an interview with space.com:

SPACE.com: You don't like the term "space tourist" and call it an "over simplistic label to a complicated process." Can you further explain that?

AA: Absolutely. In a way I take offense when they call me a tourist because it brings that image of someone with a camera around their neck and a ticket in their hand walking to the airport to go on a trip somewhere and coming back to show their pictures. But I think spaceflight is much more than that.

I've been training for it for six months. I think if it is to be compared to an experiment or an experience on Earth it probably is closer to expeditions like people who go to Antarctica or people who climb Mount Everest. I mean that requires a lot more preparation, thinking, and studying or appreciation of the environment. So I would probably compare it more to an expedition than I would to a touristy trip to another city.

Re:space tourism

[Yartrebo]

$20M is still substantially less than it costs to send a person to space and get them back alive. A space shuttle launch costs over $1B (and has 7 seats) and the ISS has an amortized cost of over $10B a year.

What is needed is basic research into propulsion systems - something that can get us into low earth orbit for less than $1,000/kg and with fuel consumption more in line with a jumbo jet.

If private enterprise wants to offer space trips, that's fine with me (my belief is that it's still too early for it to be profitable, but I'm waiting to be proved wrong), but I hate seeing valuable government assets that could be used for research being sold (or rented) for pennies on the dollar.

Cleaned up

[niceone]

The potassium hydroxide, a corrosive that can cause serious burns and can be harmful if inhaled, was cleaned up with towels and wrapped up in two rubber bags, Suffredini said.

In space, no one can hear you clean.