depressurization-in-the-international-space-station-possibly-caused-by-a-micrometeorite-impact

originally posted by: 727Sky
I am surprised this does not happen more often.

The Soyuz and the ISS have a decent protection against micrometeorites. This one must have been larger then usual, if it not only pierced all the protective layers and the structure, but left a 2mm hole on the inside.

Good job there wasn't anyone in that module when it happened.

BTW, Alexander Gerst is German.

Reminds me (sorta) of when I was 9, and while spending the day at work, I found some dirty books in a closet.
One was cheaply and gratuitously titled “Everything you wanted to know about Sex....”

why didn’t they just ask- looks at cover- this guy, I mused,

and the other was an assortment of ribald cocktail party jokes.

I managed to read one joke before sensing danger.
It read to this effect although I may
have forgotten some of the structural intricacies....

“Do you have a spoon for my coffee, or am I supposed
to stir it with my dick?”

yeah....

True story.

# 994

a reply to: TheWhiteKnight

Had similar experience at 8

Father left copy of "men's magazine" called TRUE (think MAXXIM) on kitchen table

Had a cartoon of weather man reading weather report "If want to know what weather is look out G*D*** window …"

Reading this out loud when mother walked in - Slapped me few times, then started yelling at father for leaving stuff like this for kids to find

originally posted by: firerescue
He had some tape used to fix F 14 Stuff was indestructible

1000 mile per hour tape. I loved that stuff. I had some of it and taped over some rust holes in my car and then painted it to match. Got through four state inspections with it.

originally posted by: szino9
a reply to: ignorant_ape

[ which they will never encounter ]

umm, they just did apparently...

The general public are not in the ISS.

Here's the part I don't understand.

Sure, they can easily fix a hole in the space station with relative ease, and the pressure differential is not as extreme as some would make it out to be. However, the leak wasn't in the space station itself, but rather a Russian Soyuz craft attached to the station (as I understand it). So they fix that. Okay...

Now the craft undocks from the space station and begins it's de-orbit and re-entry. The static pressure differential may not be much, but the temperatures and wind velocity at lower altitudes in the atmosphere are EXTREME. That "tiny" hole could be ripped open and turn the whole ship into a fireball and shower of flying tinfoil. I don't think you really want anything flapping in the breeze at 17,000mph! That would be bad. I mean, look what happened to Columbia.

Plus, how's a mission to Mars going to deal with this? They'll have a ton more exposure, so they better have lots of tape...and after they pass the Moon they can't turn around and return home. (I don't even think most missions pass the Moon, they traverse the Lunar orbit when the Moon is on the other side of Earth.)

Isn't there a thread here about the fact that the ISS is fake. Now this "leak" helps to support it.

I hoped to see it go out in a blaze of glory, like in movies.

I have a question:

I assume the ISS walls are multi-layered. That is to say, there is probably an outer skin, insulation, inner skin, and the some plastic wall panel on the inside.

I'm just wondering:

(a) how did then find it?, and
(b) did they need to removed the inner layers to get to the hole in the outer skin?

EDIT TO ADD: never mind...it was the Soyuz, not the actual ISS. Thanks, RoadGravel.

I assume the ISS walls are multi-layered. That is to say, there is probably an outer skin, insulation, inner skin, and the some plastic wall panel on the inside.

I'm just wondering:

(a) how did then find it?, and
(b) did they need to removed the inner layers to get to the hole in the outer skin?

After a search a small leak was found in one of two docked Soyuz craft.

originally posted by: roadgravel

I assume the ISS walls are multi-layered. That is to say, there is probably an outer skin, insulation, inner skin, and the some plastic wall panel on the inside.

I'm just wondering:

(a) how did then find it?, and
(b) did they need to removed the inner layers to get to the hole in the outer skin?

After a search a small leak was found in one of two docked Soyuz craft.

Ah...I don't know how I missed that. Thanks!

a reply to: Soylent Green Is People

Yeah, I forgot for a bit too with all the ISS talk.

Maybe the same issue applies with the capsules.

a reply to: Soylent Green Is People

oh, that's what he meant... Thanks, I'm having a slow brain day it seems

Is there video?

originally posted by: Flyingclaydisk
Now the craft undocks from the space station and begins it's de-orbit and re-entry. The static pressure differential may not be much, but the temperatures and wind velocity at lower altitudes in the atmosphere are EXTREME.

The hole is in the orbital module (also called the Habitation module). The Soyuz descent module detaches from the orbital module before they enter the part of the atmosphere where all the extreme temperatures and pressures begin.

www.youtube.com...

a reply to: roadgravel

Probably a link between this and the (air conditioning) system.
They would have to have a (leak) anyways to dump steam on a continual basis.
Good thermodynamics test for 5 YO future engineers..

Duct tape, just like Apollo 13. No, that's not a permanent fix. Just enough until they can get the high-tech up and going. That's what they used: Look here

originally posted by: schuyler
Duct tape, just like Apollo 13. No, that's not a permanent fix. Just enough until they can get the high-tech up and going. That's what they used: Look here

When you think about it, it would literally take just duct tape and perhaps some basic sealant (to stop any air going though duct tape) for this situation. There isn't a great deal of force created by air leaking though that 2 mm hole.

The Soyuz orbital module where the puncture happend isn't normally used while on the ISS (until the astronauts go in to prepare for undocking), and is detached from the descent module before re-entry.

a reply to: schuyler

Duct tape, just like Apollo 13

On Apollo 13 the duct tape was used to construct a filter to allow them to use the CO2 scrubber cartridges from the LEM
in the command module

There was no pressure leak in Apollo 13

That said there are number of metallic tapes used to repair high performance aircraft, often called 1000 mph tape

slap couple of layers over hole then coat with an epoxy sealer

originally posted by: grey580
In space, a little gorilla tape goes a long way.

I once had a guy working for me who used Gorilla tape for the first time. He was so amazed at its sticking power that he declared: "I bet that Gorilla tape would stick to just about anything other than running water. And it would probably stick to that too, if it slowed down long enough!"


Gorilla Tape is exponentially more durable and useful than standard duct tape.

-dex

It still seems to me that the astronaut would likely have a 2 mm wide freezer-burnt hickey on his finger.


-dex