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Author
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Topic: ISS Air Pressure Leak Update?
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MarylandSpace
Member Posts: 1365
From:
Registered: Aug 2002
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posted 01-10-2004 09:58 PM
   
Can any of you provide us with an update on the recent air pressure leak on the International Space Station? |
micropooz
Member Posts: 1545
From: Washington, DC, USA
Registered: Apr 2003
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posted 01-10-2004 10:24 PM
CNN reported today that the pressure was down to 14.0 psi (should be 14.7), that the crew had yet to find a leak source, and would begin to seal off one module at a time to try to figure out which module contains the leak. |
ejectr
Member Posts: 1787
From: Killingly, CT
Registered: Mar 2002
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posted 01-11-2004 07:57 AM
Seems to me that would have been the first thing they would have done. |
micropooz
Member Posts: 1545
From: Washington, DC, USA
Registered: Apr 2003
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posted 01-11-2004 10:30 AM
On the surface, closing off modules to find the leak would seem like the logical first thing to do. However, you have to take into account two concerns once you do that: - Loss of use of that module while it is closed off.
- If the module with the leak bleeds down too far with its hatch closed, re-opening the hatch can become a safety concern with differing pressures on each side (the hatch can become a missile or a catapult).
So, I think they did the logical thing, look in all the easy or most likely places first. Since that didn't pan out, they start doing the less-easy troubleshooting. |
Robert Pearlman
Editor Posts: 44492
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999
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posted 01-11-2004 02:55 PM
From journalist Jim Oberg: Since about noon EST astronaut Foale and Mission Control have been very excitedly talking about a leak "hiss" signal detected near the big window in the US lab. This may be the source of the drop in pressure over the past twenty days. |
Robert Pearlman
Editor Posts: 44492
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999
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posted 01-11-2004 03:50 PM
Crew finds culprit in space station leak, from Jim Oberg for MSNBC. Astronaut Michael Foale has apparently located the small air leak that has bedeviled the international space station for the past three weeks.NASA's Mission Control Center in Houston on Sunday suspended impending plans to lock down the entire station, close the hatches between its major modules and monitor the air pressure in each one separately. "The news couldn't have come at a better time," Mission Control advised the crew in their pre-sleep briefing on Sunday afternoon. "It looks like we found our culprit." The leak appears to be at the main window in the U.S.-built Destiny laboratory module. A flexible cable called a vacuum jumper, used to help equalize air pressure across the multipaned window, showed telltale signs of leakage where the hose entered a steel harness at the edge of the window. The structure can be capped off with equipment already aboard the station. It can be entirely replaced later in the year when the needed spare part is sent up on a robotic Russian cargo ship. |
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