Russia says space station leak could be deliberate sabotage

originally posted by: howtonhawky
Looks to be metal or possibly stainless.

Aluminium is a metal.

originally posted by: ArMaP

originally posted by: howtonhawky
Looks to be metal or possibly stainless.

Aluminium is a metal.

So very true...

Metal other than aluminum as in steal.

Aluminum leaves a more clean hole when drilled.






btw I found the top pic in the op featured in several other articles.

a reply to: ArMaP


I did a reverse image search on the first picture. There weren't any results so I didn't do one on the second .

a reply to: Xtrozero


In the first picture is the skips are in a straight line 99 times out of 100 a drillbit that skips won't go in a straight. It might do that with the drill press and a clamped piece of metal But a handheld drill turns to the right and pulls to the right. Plus I looked and majority of the space station is aluminum. Unless you've got a really dull bit. A drillbit will seat easily in aluminum.

It might be a skip but I highly doubt it.

a reply to: 14377

It is not actually the iss. It is the Soyuz ship. The parts featured in the pic seem to be steel. As you said bits go right through aluminum and do not leave a clean hole. Plus this site says it's steal.

www.russianspaceweb.com...

eta
This site says it is aluminum alloy

so many layers it is hard to know from the resources i am finding.

There are several articles in the last four or five days about a micro meteor hitting the space station. One astronaut plugged it with his finger, another put tape over it then they applied a epoxy patch .

no pictures but it sounds like this mystery is solved .

Little Dutch boy syndrome

originally posted by: 14377
a reply to: Xtrozero


In the first picture is the skips are in a straight line 99 times out of 100 a drillbit that skips won't go in a straight. It might do that with the drill press and a clamped piece of metal But a handheld drill turns to the right and pulls to the right. Plus I looked and majority of the space station is aluminum. Unless you've got a really dull bit. A drillbit will seat easily in aluminum.

It might be a skip but I highly doubt it.

This is highly dependent on who is doing the drilling trying to drill at a angle can get you skips like that, needless to say it looks whoever did those holes assuming they are indeed drill holes (which is my appraisal) couldn’t pass high school shop. Hence why I said it looked like an apprentice with a dull but.

ETA-I’ve been thinking about othe explanations and it doesn’t look like metal spalling from an impact at all to me. I was a little curious when the stories saying it was MM inmpact when it only punctured one side of the hull with no other damage and not a total penetration through both ends of the station but not my ballpark so it was just odd sounding to me. I don’t see the motivation for Russia trying to cause problems if it was a simple MM impact. They’re propaganda is bad but not that bad IMO.

originally posted by: 14377
There are several articles in the last four or five days about a micro meteor hitting the space station. One astronaut plugged it with his finger, another put tape over it then they applied a epoxy patch .

no pictures but it sounds like this mystery is solved .

Little Dutch boy syndrome

There are over ten articles with pics made today that point to sabotage.

Here is the latest i could find.

phys.org...

Space agency chief Dmitry Rogozin said the hole detected Thursday in a Russian space craft docked at the orbiting station was caused by a drill and could have been done deliberately, either back on Earth or by astronauts in space. Astronauts used tape to seal the leak after it caused a small loss of pressure that was not life-threatening. "There were several attempts at drilling," Rogozin said late Monday in televised comments, adding that the drill appeared to have been held by a "wavering hand". Read more at: phys.org...

If it was done on earth there would be residue of a patch plus the actual patch or plug itself unless some threw it out the window.lol

originally posted by: ArMaP

originally posted by: 14377
I still think it might numbers or possibly the Cyrillic alphabet .

Doesn't look like numbers or Cyrillic characters (I know them), it does look like the paint was scrapped by some tool.

Regarding the markings made on your test, wouldn't the way the drill skips across the metal change with the shape of the drill? If it would then a different drill could have made those marks.

Looking again it looks like the smaller skips might have been a smaller “pilot” bit then they got their pilot drilled they moved up to the size of the hole they were shooting for. Also to the guy that did the test in aluminum where you using a drill with a stabilizing side handle because that helps with not walking side to side. If A mag base or or drill press were used it wouldn’t have walked. Remember kids when you want to sabotage a space craft don’t forget your center punch to keep yourself from looking like a complete noob.

originally posted by: howtonhawky

originally posted by: 14377
There are several articles in the last four or five days about a micro meteor hitting the space station. One astronaut plugged it with his finger, another put tape over it then they applied a epoxy patch .

no pictures but it sounds like this mystery is solved .

Little Dutch boy syndrome

There are over ten articles with pics made today that point to sabotage.

Here is the latest i could find.

phys.org...

Space agency chief Dmitry Rogozin said the hole detected Thursday in a Russian space craft docked at the orbiting station was caused by a drill and could have been done deliberately, either back on Earth or by astronauts in space. Astronauts used tape to seal the leak after it caused a small loss of pressure that was not life-threatening. "There were several attempts at drilling," Rogozin said late Monday in televised comments, adding that the drill appeared to have been held by a "wavering hand". Read more at: phys.org...

If it was done on earth there would be residue of a patch plus the actual patch or plug itself unless some threw it out the window.lol

I highly doubt there was a plug, the whole would be cleaner the other “imperfections” would be covered up as well. The proper patch would have been a welded blank in place and it wouldn’t let loose. I can’t see them using any other kind of patching system on the ground. That being said if somehow it got into space with a piece of cork shoved in it the “plug” would have been ejected into space but that looks completely untouched since the drilling process.

Would a meteorite pass through just one side or keep going making two holes? My guess is a mistake on the ground. It would have involved a lot of work to replace the whole section and possibly delay the whole project.

originally posted by: Starhooker
Would a meteorite pass through just one side or keep going making two holes? My guess is a mistake on the ground. It would have involved a lot of work to replace the whole section and possibly delay the whole project.

It would seem to at least impact debris and partially penetrate the other side if it was indeed an impact.

a reply to: howtonhawky

At $10,000 a pound to put something in orbit. They use very little if any steel .

a reply to: howtonhawky

So there is confirmation of a micro meteor strike. Yet there's Russian speculation about sabotage ? I'm going to go with a former rather than the latter .

originally posted by: 14377
a reply to: howtonhawky

So there is confirmation of a micro meteor strike. Yet there's Russian speculation about sabotage ? I'm going to go with a former rather than the latter .

That was the initial assumption but that was a guess at the time I think there would be more evidence than just a hole of it was indeed a MM strike causing the damage. Where the strike is exactly will clear up things some because it might have been a location that a meteorite couldn’t have struck without hitting other components. You go with the most simple and logical explanation until/unless you find evidence otherwise. If that pic is legit it’s not a MM strike IMHO.

a reply to: BigDave-AR

I doubt anyone here has decades of experience with aluminum and drillbits. I stand behind my position on that.

The most logical explanation is a micro meteor strike.

The current position that people believe it was sabotage. Reminds me of just another false flag/hoax scenario played out regularly on the Internet .

I'm gonna wait-and-see. If every space agency isn't screaming bloody hell in a week or two . It wasn't sabotage .

I couldn't possibly add any more to this thread. So I'm just gonna wait and see how it plays out .

originally posted by: 14377
a reply to: BigDave-AR

I doubt anyone here has decades of experience with aluminum and drillbits. I stand behind my position on that.

The most logical explanation is a micro meteor strike.

The current position that people believe it was sabotage. Reminds me of just another false flag/hoax scenario played out regularly on the Internet .

I'm gonna wait-and-see. If every space agency isn't screaming bloody hell in a week or two . It wasn't sabotage .

I couldn't possibly add any more to this thread. So I'm just gonna wait and see how it plays out .

I have been around a machine shop quite a bit you can check the link in my sig to see some of my families aerospace work. I’m willing to be proved wrong but if that was a MM impact it’s awfully suspicious it being around many other “apprentice marks”. I’m sorry but on test on a piece of cheese grade aluminum in your shop doesn’t prove that it has to be an MM strike especially seeing as the holes were started on painted metal not bare aluminum.

a reply to: 14377

30 years working in metals for a living as a machinist and that hole is absolutely drilled and is not from a meteorite strike.
The lack of spalling is a dead give away.
I also have practical experience with russian metal working.
It was a shop error and a low level manager bumped it through rather than scrap a part they could not replace.

a reply to: seattlerat

This first 'space sabotage' was coincidentally right after our announcement of another u.s military space branch. Space race lol space needs international spies too

a reply to: punkinworks10



Here's the way I look at it .

Purple Arrow : evidence of spalling at the top of the hole.


Look at the blue arrow, the green arrow and the top lines. They are all straight and are the most glaring evidence to me of them not being drill skips.

You might have a drill skip straight once in a while. But you're not going to have three straight line skips with no other mistakes. Anybody that has worked metals knows virtually impossible .