Minor Leak Being Investigated Aboard the ISS

Josh Fink writes "Space.com is reporting that the International Space Station has a minor atmosphere leak. 'An inspection of a vestibule bridging the station's new Harmony connecting module and NASA's Destiny laboratory indicated a slight air leak of about three pounds (1.3 kilograms) per day ..A close-up inspection of the vestibule seal by the station's three-astronaut Expedition 16 crew using an ultrasonic leak detector found no trace of a leak on Wednesday, [NASA spokesperson Lynette Madison] said. Studies of the station's overall internal pressure also found no signs of decay, she added.' While this is yet another technical issue with the ISS, when will this end? I am all for the space program, but there have been some major issues lately."

Comments

"when will it end?"

[taniwha]

hopefully never - the whole point is it's an engineering experiment, if nothing fails they won't learn anything, it'll just be a bunch of guys sitting around wondering what they're doing there

Re:"when will it end?"

[MightyYar]

Besides, learning that something got stuck on the seal before they connected the two segments would hardly be a valuable scientific discovery. That isn't necessarily the case. It would show that their current procedure of ensuring a clean seal is either not good enough, or the seal is not robust enough to handle unavoidable amount of contamination. In either case, it is better to discover this in low earth orbit than on the moon or on Mars.

Going to space is hard

[TooMuchToDo]

While this is yet another technical issue with the ISS, when will this end? I am all for the space program, but there have been some major issues lately."

Going to space is hard. It shouldn't stop us from doing it. Issues will crop up.

Re:Going to space is hard

[maxume]

Please compute the ROI for exploring space and say, discovering all that gold that Spain got from the new world. The comparison is a non sequitur.

Problems never end

[YA_Python_dev]

I agree.

While this is yet another technical issue with the ISS, when will this end?

Never. When you build something big, hardware or software, you will have problems. You can't expect to have everything always work the first time.

When you encounter a problem you fix it, it's that simple.

Remember: "The perfect is the enemy of the good." -- Voltaire

Re:Problems never end

[Anonymous Coward]

When you encounter a problem you fix it, it's that simple.

And more importantly, you get better at fixing them. That's really why we're out there after all. We're gaining experience that can only be gained the real way.

Re:Problems never end

[DerekLyons]

When you build something big, hardware or software, you will have problems. You can't expect to have everything always work the first time.

Or even the n th time. A system as large and complex as the ISS will always have problems. Period.

these problems are the reason we need ISS

[Anonymous Coward]

guys... I work for nasa on the space station program... i am amazed at how people frame the detection and fixing of problems on the space station are such a negative thing... the space station construction is so incredibly difficult and complex... and when we have issues, people point them out as never ending. This is the 2nd space station... compare that to the 2nd airplane.

And the biggest thing that amazes me is that these problems are the biggest reason to have the space station!!! We have to learn how to fly in space long term... and fix problems just like these!! what kind of problems do you think we will have when we go to the moon and mars?? do people honestly think if we just drop what we are doing and took off trying to get to mars, we would find out just how much learning we have left to do.

overall, i think the american public is left feeling ashamed of the problems they see on the ISS, instead of being proud of the accomplishment because they don't really comprehend just how insane the Apollo successes were, and how ahead of their time they were. We really do have a lot left to learn about flying in space and fixing things in space with the materials in place, and unless we want to take insane risks and costs like were done in the Apollo program, we need to do that with the space station.

these problems... their detection, isolation, and recovery, are the greatest asset of the space station.

Space is hard

[geekoid]

but to quote some guy:
"We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too." - JFK

http://www.quotesandsayings.com/sjfk.htm

Yeah, it's hard and complex. We will learn how to make maintenance of those systems routine and automated. We will continue to look forward, we must less we stagnate and die. The fate of the Dinosaurs will be our fate as well if we don't diversify off this rock. There are a lot of steps between here and the next habitable planet. Whether it's habitable because nature forms more planets like ours, or habitable because we terrorformed it makes no matter.

Too bad we can't moderate the TLP as "troll".

[mmell]

After all, Columbus, DeGama, Balboa, Cortez, Magellan - they all had flawless journeys of exploration, didn't they?

End debate

[geekoid]

"Cue human missions vs automated missions debate."
Both.

"Cue government space programs vs private space programs debate."
Government for pushing new boundaries, private for established routine stuff.

"
(At least the breathing oxygen vs breathing vacuum debate would be short.)"
I can't weigh in on this one because I couldn't hear what the guy in vacuum was saying...

Re:Comes with the territory

[iminplaya]

Being "for the space program" requires some acceptance of the massive risks inherent in manned space travel.

You're not kidding. The submitter's complaint is like bitching about the Wright Brother's airplane not being able to fly 100 people across the Atlantic by the end of 1904. The thing is an experiment, ok? Some problems may be due to poor decision making, but I think we can still cut them some slack here. This is not like the Challenger disaster where I believe upper management committed criminal negligence for political expediency. They were warned about that impending failure to the point that the TV news reporters were discussing it before launch. So they got a leak. Use it to ventilate the bathroom.

Re:Comes with the territory

[Anonymous Coward]

The purpose of the ISS is to learn how to build and maintain large facilities in space. It is a learning process. My question to those that use issues like this as a reason to criticize the ISS is simple: Would you rather have this kind of problem come up on a lunar base where the crew was three days, not two hours from safety? How about on a Mars mission where there was no chance of sending repair parts or rescuing the crew? It is far better to discover issues like this, or the torn solar panel, or the metal shavings they found in an array rotary junction, now and figure out how to deal with it and prevent it from happening again in the wading pool of low Earth orbit rather than in the deep ocean of space.

It's a minor leak, but it's very expensive air

[Phat_Tony]

At $20,000 per pound to deliver more air with the space shuttle, it's very expensive air their losing, at $60,000 worth of air per day. How long would it take to leak a minor scientific research project out of the budget?

Seriously?

[cybersavior]

Of course there's gonna be problems. Imagine if in the 1400's the entire would could see in real time every splintered mast, frayed rope, broken rudder, or lost anchor on columbus' voyage. Expect this kind of stuff in the exploration of a region un-mastered by man.