Astronauts on the ISS are braced for an urgent evacuation – as NASA uncovers 50 ‘areas of concern’ including leaks and cracks on the 25-year-old space station
Daily Mail | 28 October 2024 | Wiliam HunterNASA’s astronauts aboard the International Space Station have been told to prepare for an urgent evacuation amid growing safety concerns.
The US space agency and its Russian counterpart, Roscomos, are tracking 50 ‘areas of concern’ related to a growing leak aboard the station.
NASA is now calling the cracks in a Russian service module a ‘top safety risk’ – escalating the threat rating to five out of five.
Astronauts have been warned to stay in the American section when the module is open so they can be close to their spacecraft in case of an emergency evacuation.
Although officials have been aware of the issue since 2019, the exact source of the leak is still unknown.
Concerns over the station’s safety are now so high that NASA has negotiated with Roscomos to only open the hatch when absolutely necessary and to keep it sealed in the evenings.
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NASA is now tracking 50 ‘areas of concern’ related to a leak in the Russian Zvezda Service Module Transfer Tunnel (labelled) which sprung a leak in 2019
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The air leak is located in the Russian Zvezda Service Module Transfer Tunnel which was installed in 2000 and is used to house life support equipment and to access a Russian cargo dock.
In 2019 it was noted that the module had begun to leak a small amount of air through an unidentified crack.
However, despite efforts to seal the module, the amount of air escaping the station has only increased over the last five years.
In February this year, NASA was forced to hold a press conference on the issue as the amount of air escaping temporarily increased from 0.2 lbs per day (0.09 kg) to 2.4 lbs (1.08 kg) per day.
Just as an academic exercise, guys — you know, for back-of-the-envelope stuff — could we find out how many pounds of air we have aboard? With the two extra unplanned passengers, I mean.
You never want to hear the word “evacuation” when you’re dealing with trapped bubbles…
You betchya there was some urgent evacutions going on.
You wanted back of the envelope?
From https://www.nasa.gov/international-space-station/space-station-facts-and-figures/:
* Habitable Volume: 13,696 cubic feet (388 cubic meters) not including visiting vehicles
* Pressurized Volume: 35,491 cubic feet (1,005 cubic meters)
From https://www.aqua-calc.com/calculate/volume-to-weight:
* Weight of 1 cubic meter of air (presumably at sea level is 1.29 Kg.
Therefore, assuming they are pressurized to sea level, the ISS holds 388 x 1.29 Kg ~500 Kg
Assuming it is not resupplied,
This does not allow for how little air someone needs to survive long term nor does it allow for resupplying the ISS.
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armstrong_limit:
The “Armstrong Limit” of 59000 to 52000 free above sea level will result in loss of consciousness and death in 60-90 seconds. PSI 0.906. Everest Summit is PSI 4.89. Sea Level is 14.69 PSI. For sake of argument, let’s assume that 7.35 PSI would produce acceptable astronaut performance with unacceptable degradation below that. This would reduce the days of air by a factor of 2, so ~1251 days or ~105 days.
From https://moviecultists.com/how-often-does-the-iss-get-resupplied:
Currently the ISS is restocked every 3-4 months (90-120 days). I am not sure how many atmospheres of pressurized air are provided.
From http://howmanypeopleareinspacerightnow.com:
There are currently 10 people in space (3 cosmonauts, 3 sinonauts (China), and 4 astronauts (including a German).
From https://www.spacex.com/vehicles/dragon/:
The Dragon capsule can carry 7 people. Therefore the ISS could be evacuated in two missions.
The Dragon has a trunk volume of 37 cubic meters. If not pressurized above sea level, it could carry ~239 days @0.2 Kg/day but only 20 days @2.4 Kg/day. In reality, Dragon would haul pressured canisters of air but part of the capsule would also be hauling other supplies (food, equipment, experiments, etc), so maybe double those days.
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Falcon_9_and_Falcon_Heavy_launches:
The most Falcon Heavy Launches in a year to date was 5 in 2023. That would need to be accelerated if Falcon Heavy is required for ISS. More likely it is a Falcon Block 5 (98 this year).
My conclusion is that with the 2.4 Kg/day, if that becomes chronic, they can get out in two missions in two months (air up, people down). Elon has multiple capsules, though in the site above it mentions that the dragons are partially reusable. Therefore, there is some refurbish effort required. But it is probably doable by Elon, once Nasa pulls the trigger. I don’t know how frequently the launch window is to the ISS. Hopefully it is NOT 3-4 months.
Ditto
….and to keep it sealed in the evenings. There are evenings in outer space?
They should probably stop using push pins to hang up their “girls back home.”
Can’t we just send up some bubble gum?