this post was submitted on 19 Nov 2024
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The transfer tunnel, known by the Russian acronym PrK, connects the Zvezda module with a docking port where Soyuz crew and Progress resupply spacecraft attach to the station.

Air has been leaking from the transfer tunnel since September 2019. On several occasions, Russian cosmonauts have repaired the cracks and temporarily reduced the leak rate. In February, the leak rate jumped up again to 2.4 pounds per day, then increased to 3.7 pounds per day in April.

"The Russian position is that the most probable cause of the PrK cracks is high cyclic fatigue caused by micro-vibrations," Cabana said on November 13. "NASA believes the PrK cracks are likely multi-causal, including pressure and mechanical stress, residual stress, material properties, and environmental exposures."

Crew members aboard the space station are keeping the hatch leading to the PrK closed when they don't need to access the Progress cargo freighter docked at the other end of the transfer tunnel. Russian cosmonauts must open the hatch to unpack supplies from the Progress or load trash into the ship for disposal.

As a precaution, Barratt said space station crews are also closing the hatch separating the US and Russian sections of the space station when cosmonauts are working in the PrK.

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[–] RvTV95XBeo 9 points 22 hours ago

It'd be freakier if it was taking on air.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 20 hours ago

Probably installed an airopen instead of an airlock.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 day ago (2 children)

NASA: None of our engineerscan solve this problem.

HVAC guy: Hmm, can't use soap bubbles in space... maybe if they use some smoke to make the leak visible....

[–] [email protected] 3 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

Hilariously water with dye is almost certainly how they're detecting the leaks position since most of the fun tracer gases are oxygen replacers or straight up toxic.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

The only reason to use gases for this on earth is because liquids are too heavy to be sucked towards to small leaks. In space, isn't there a case to be made to use some small light solids? Not styrofoam because theyre staticky. But if you found something of equivalent density that would float towards the leaks, but didn't pick up static and could easily be cleaned out of the air filters...it would be useful for this.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

High oxygen environment and almost anything in a powder is extremely explosive including plastic and for that matter baking soda. Some things that aren't even flammable are potentially explosive when powdered, science is weird sometimes.

[–] threelonmusketeers 1 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

Plastic yes, baking soda no. What part of baking soda would burn? The molecule is already about as oxidized as it could be.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 hours ago

Shit you're right I meant flour.

[–] Taokan 1 points 1 day ago

Restaurant guy: one of your employees probably taking a little smoke break.

[–] [email protected] 45 points 2 days ago (2 children)

Fill the ISS with water and you'll be able to see the leak.

[–] [email protected] 68 points 2 days ago (1 children)

This is probably the dumbest thing I've heard. You clearly have no idea what you're taking about. To find the leak they need to spray the outside with soapy water. If that doesn't work the next step is to put the ISS in a bathtub and fill the bathtub with water

[–] [email protected] 29 points 2 days ago (5 children)

Idiot. You obviously have no idea about the logistics of launching a bath into space. You'd need to send a bucket on a rocket (aero dynamic).

Put the ISS into the bucket, fill with water, then squeeze the ISS and look for bubbles.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Fucking fools. Just use a robotic arm to bend the whole suspect section. You'll see the cracks open up as you flex it back and forth, and can spray some flex seal in the cracks. Seriously, try a little bit.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Brainless hemroids! Shmear the conspicuous gelatinous substance from front to back, always from front to back. Freshen & powder, and wrap her back up before she starts spewing like a little lad.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Great now there's an 1800's sailor on the space station.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago

I'm gonna show you ninnies how to really skip this boat

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 days ago (1 children)

What a bunch of morons. Just hang some clothes around the ISS and if they wave you've found your leak. No need to send anything because astronauts already have clothes up there ...

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 days ago

You all are fools, all this time finding the leak and none of you brought the tire patch

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[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 day ago

It's the I-SSsssssssssssssssssss

[–] [email protected] 30 points 2 days ago (2 children)

Because there’s a hole in it, stupid.

That’ll be five million dollar bucks for my consultation.

[–] mindbleach 7 points 1 day ago (5 children)

Line-item breakdown:

Fix-a-flat, $5.

Knowing where to squirt, $4,999,995.

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago

But the hole is on the Russian side and the Russian side is absolutely perfect. No holes here, Comrade, breathing is a luxury some people do not get. Do not become one of those non-breathers Comrade.

[–] [email protected] 59 points 2 days ago (1 children)

“The ISS is leaking?? Where?”

“It’s high overhead, orbiting the earth at tremendous speed. But that’s not important right now.”

[–] threelonmusketeers 13 points 2 days ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 42 points 2 days ago (3 children)
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[–] [email protected] 28 points 2 days ago (2 children)

The ISS has been leaking air for 5 years, and engineers still don’t know why

*raises hand*

Uh, is it the cold unforgiving vacuum of space that forbids our existence there?

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 day ago (4 children)

Space doesn't really have a temperature as you need something to be hot or cold! And in the vacuum there isn't much.

So just unforgiving vacuum.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 21 hours ago

It's not cold physically, it's cold emotionally.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago

If you really play with definitions you can equate cold to things that are thermal insulators and hot to things that are conductors. By that (very stretched) definition a vacuum is cold. Perfectly cold.

The stretching: Even if something is like a thousand degrees but it's a near perfect thermal insulator, it won't feel that hot when you touch it.

[–] Croquette 3 points 1 day ago

My brain just imploded from that realisation and it troubles me.

I can intellectually reconcile what you said, but my reptilian brain cannot comprehend the phenomenon for whatever reason.

I instinctively don't believe that the radiation only is how heat is transferred in the vacuum even though I know that this the case. We always have had 3 (convection, conduction and radiation), and that stumps me.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Heat transfer by radiation complicates things. We lose the majority of our heat that way, and we'd lose a lot more if every cubic inch of the spaces we inhabit weren't flooded with thermal radiation from the objects that surround us.

You can absolutely judge the temperature of a volume, vacuum or not, by its radiation content at any given moment.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

You're describing a thermal balance. Temperature is a property of matter which doesn't exist in a perfect vacuum. That said, the space around ISS is far from a perfect vacuum (atomic oxygen sucks). In any case, the typical temperature model starts to breakdown with increasing vacuum.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Sure, but in any practical sense it is a temperature. It would be silly to say space isn't cold (or hot depending) from a regular person's perspective. Thermal balance creates an effective temperature, even if it wouldn't be described as a temperature within some technical frame of reference.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago

That's a fair point.

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[–] [email protected] 46 points 2 days ago (3 children)

"ISS! More like H-ISS! amirite?!"

[–] taladar 10 points 2 days ago (1 children)

The lack of an H is part of the French contribution to the station.

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[–] Seeders 4 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Doesn't that throw off the trajectory over time?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 day ago

Negligibly, they already lose significant enough altitude from the rare atmosphere up there to need to do boosts, but yes if it is a net force

[–] [email protected] 28 points 2 days ago (10 children)

Because it’s a slapped-together mess of duct tape and hope?

The ISS is old. It was never meant to last past 2013. At this point, minor malfunctions, like this are expected.

The ISS needs to be replaced with a larger orbital research platform.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago

No it needs to be expanded so that it can house thousands of different species.

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[–] [email protected] 27 points 2 days ago

Someone needs to close the damn window, we aren't paying to heat the entire universe

[–] arandomthought 12 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Question: When Air leaks from the ISS, does it just orbit with it indefinitely as an "air bubble" or maybe a dispersed "air cloud" around it or will it eventually settle down into the atmosphere?

[–] [email protected] 21 points 2 days ago

In a vacuum, gas will expand indefinitely, so they probably become stray atoms of gas, that will orbit for a little, ocassionallt hitting each other and probably eventually falling back in the atmosphere.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Have they tried lighting a match and following the smoke?

[–] Peppycito 10 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Hot box the ISS! We need to train stoners to be astronauts so the can come save the day!

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