Last week, a pressure leak occurred on the International Space Station. It was slow and posed no immediate threat to the crew, with the atmosphere leaving the station at a rate such that depressurization of the station would have taken 14 days.
Eventually, US and Russian crew members traced the leak to a 2mm breach in the orbital module of the Soyuz MS-09 vehicle that had flown to the space station in June. The module had carried Russian cosmonaut Sergey Prokopyev, European Space Agency astronaut Alexander Gerst, and NASA's Serena M. Auñón-Chancellor.
[...] The drama might have ended there, as it was initially presumed that the breach had been caused by a tiny bit of orbital debris. However, recent Russian news reports have shown that the problem was, in fact, a manufacturing defect. It remains unclear whether the hole was an accidental error or intentional. There is evidence that a technician saw the drilling mistake and covered the hole with glue, which prevented the problem from being detected during a vacuum test.
Related Stories
Russian theory that NASA sabotaged the space station spreading like wildfire
As you may recall, a low-pressure leak occurred aboard the International Space Station in late August. Eventually the crews traced the leak to the orbital module of a Russian Soyuz spacecraft that had arrived at the station in June. After the problem was traced to what appears to be a manufacturing defect, the head of Russia's space program essentially called for the head of whoever made the error. Now, however, something entirely new is afoot in Russia. A growing number of Russian publications have been putting forth an absurd new theory—that a NASA astronaut deliberately caused the leak on board the station in order to force the evacuation of a sick crew member. The story has spread like wildfire during the last 24 hours, according to Robinson Mitchell, who translates Russian space stories for Ars.
One of the most prominent articles was published Wednesday in Kommersant, which says Russian investigators are vigorously pursuing the claim that Americans may have damaged the Soyuz deliberately. Publicly, Roscosmos leader Dmitry Rogozin was quoted as saying about Russia's investigation into the leak, "Results we have received do not give us an objective picture. The situation is much more complex than we earlier thought." Privately, however, several sources from the space agency are leaking much juicier comments to the Russian media. "Our Soyuz is next to the Rassvet (Dawn) module, right next to the hatch into the American segment of the station," one source told Kommersant. "Access to our ship is possible only with the permission of our commander, but we cannot exclude an unsanctioned access by the Americans."
After more speculation about cause of ISS leak, NASA issues another statement
A thorough Russian investigation of a leak that occurred in August in the orbital module of a Russian Soyuz spacecraft, which is attached to the International Space Station, will not be completed until November. But this week, the head of the Russian space agency Roscosmos reignited controversy about the leak with some comments during a television appearance.
A preliminary investigation, according to Russia's chief spaceflight official, Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin, "concluded that a manufacturing defect had been ruled out which is important to establish the truth." So if it wasn't a manufacturing defect, then what was it? As Rogozin did not say, this re-fueled speculation in some media reports that the hole was intentionally drilled by NASA astronauts in space. This theory is nonsensical, but it appears to play well to Russian audiences.
After these latest comments and with an imminent Soyuz spacecraft launch on October 11 that will carry NASA astronaut Nick Hague to the International Space Station, the US space agency felt the need to put out a new statement on Wednesday. It reads:
On Aug. 29, 2018 a small hole was discovered on the International Space Station. This resulted in a pressure leak. The hole has been identified and fixed by space station crew.
Russian media recently reported that General Director Rogozin said the hole was not a manufacturing defect. Ruling out a manufacturing defect indicates that this is an isolated issue which does not categorically affect future production.
This conclusion does not necessarily mean the hole was created intentionally or with mal-intent. NASA and Roscosmos are both investigating the incident to determine the cause. The International Space Station Program is tentatively planning a spacewalk in November to gather more information.
On October 11, American Astronaut Nick Hague and Russian Cosmonaut Alexey Ovchinin will launch to the International Space Station on a Russian Soyuz MS-10 spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Administrator Bridenstine is scheduled to attend the launch and plans to meet with Mr. Rogozin. This will be their first in-person meeting. They had a telephone call on September 12 during which they discussed the International Space Station leak.
Previously: Russian Space Chief Vows to Find "Full Name" of Technician Who Caused ISS Leak
NASA and Roscosmos Release Joint Statement on ISS Leak Amid Rumors
Russia Wants to Extend U.S. Space Partnership. Or It Could Turn to China.
The American incentives for engaging with Russia in space in the 1990s — political goals like the employment of idle rocket scientists to prevent missile proliferation — have mostly disappeared with the resumption of tensions. The Trump administration has already proposed that by 2025 the United States should stop supporting the International Space Station that is the principal joint project today. A final decision is up to Congress. The American role might be shifted to a commercial footing thereafter.
[...] [It] is unclear how much longer the post-Soviet era of space cooperation between the United States and Russia can last in the more hostile environment now surrounding relations. In the interview, [Dmitri O. Rogozin, the director of Russia's space agency,] said Russia wanted to carry on joint flights with the United States and its allies, despite the tensions over election interference, wars in Syria and Ukraine, and the chemical weapons poisoning of a former double agent in Britain.
[...] Analysts say Moscow has a strong incentive to maintain the joint program: a decided lack of money to pursue a lunar station on its own. Russia's budget for its space program is something less than one-10th what the United States spends on NASA. [...] Russia's preference is to press on with a space program entwined with the United States', on either the lunar program or another venture, Mr. Rogozin said. But if talks fail, Russia can turn to China or India for partnership. There might then be two stations circling the Earth or the moon, one led by the United States the other a Russian-Chinese enterprise. Mr. Rogozin even floated the idea of a "BRIC station," the acronym for the developing economies of Brazil, Russia, India and China.
Mr. Rogozin in November ordered the Russian Academy of Sciences to study the prospects for a solo Russian program to build a habitable base on the surface of the moon. Ivan M. Moiseyev, the director of the Institute of Space Policy in Moscow, said in a telephone interview that any proposal for a lone Russian lunar station was fantastical, given the budget constraints. "The technical capability exists, but the finances don't."
The U.S. and NASA could develop stronger partnerships with the European Space Agency, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, and Indian Space Research Organisation instead.
Previously:
NASA Suspends Collaboration with Russia
Russia to Build New Space Station with NASA after ISS
NASA and International Partners Planning Orbital Lunar Outpost
NASA and Roscosmos Sign Joint Statement on the Development of a Lunar Space Station
Russia Assembles Engineering Group for Lunar Activities and the Deep Space Gateway
Russian Space Chief Vows to Find "Full Name" of Technician Who Caused ISS Leak
NASA and Roscosmos Release Joint Statement on ISS Leak Amid Rumors
Head of Russian Space Agency Roscosmos Wavers on Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway
Soyuz Rocket Carrying Crew Successfully Launches and Docks with ISS
Related: Price War Between SpaceX and Russia
Two Russian cosmonauts have removed samples from a Soyuz spacecraft docked at the International Space Station during a spacewalk. They used knives and shears to cut around the now-sealed 2mm hole in the Soyuz MS-09:
Expedition 57 flight engineers Oleg Kononenko and Sergey Prokopyev of the Russian federal space agency Roscosmos conducted the 7-hour and 45-minute spacewalk. The two cosmonauts worked on the exterior of the Russian Soyuz MS-09 spacecraft, where the space station's crew had earlier found and repaired the leak from the inside.
[...] Today, Prokopyev joined Kononenko on a spacewalk to inspect the repair area from the outside in an effort to discover what caused the leak and to collect a sample of the epoxy that had extruded through the hole from the inside. To reach the area needed to perform the inspection, Kononenko rode at the end of two Russian Strela booms, translating from the Pirs docking compartment where the spacewalk began to the Zarya functional cargo block (FGB) and then up alongside the Soyuz. Prokopyev controlled the booms' motion from the opposite end, moving Kononenko into place, before shimmying up the second boom himself.
At the worksite, Kononenko and Prokopyev took turns using a knife and a pair of long-arm scissors to stab at and cut away layers of brown, gold and silvery insulation. As they cut into the spacecraft, small fragments of the material floated away and formed a cloud of debris. The two cosmonauts then used the same tools to cut into and peel away a thin metal orbital debris shield to expose the hole in the Soyuz MS-09's orbital compartment. [...] Kononenko used a pair of forceps and a swab to collect samples of the dark epoxy. The residue, stowed inside a bag, was brought back inside the space station and will be returned to Earth for analysis.
Also at BBC.
Previously: Russian Space Chief Vows to Find "Full Name" of Technician Who Caused ISS Leak
NASA and Roscosmos Release Joint Statement on ISS Leak Amid Rumors
Controversy Over ISS Leak Continues, Spacewalk Planned for November
Russia’s space program just threw a NASA astronaut under the bus:
Russia's state-owned news service, TASS, has published an extraordinarily defamatory article about NASA astronaut Serena Auñón-Chancellor. The publication claims that Auñón-Chancellor had an emotional breakdown in space, then damaged a Russian spacecraft in order to return early. This, of course, is a complete fabrication.
The context for the article is the recent, near-disastrous docking of the Russian Nauka science module with the International Space Station. The TASS article attempts to rebut criticism in US publications (including Ars Technica) that covered the incident and raised questions about the future of the Roscosmos-NASA partnership in space.
One of a dozen rebuttals in the TASS article concerns a 2018 incident—a 2 mm breach in the orbital module of the Soyuz MS-09 vehicle docked with the International Space Station. Russian cosmonaut Sergey Prokopyev, European Space Agency astronaut Alexander Gerst, and NASA's Auñón-Chancellor had flown to the station inside this Soyuz in June. The leak was discovered in late August.
Previously:
(2020-09-05) Source of International Space Station Leak Still Not Found, NASA Says
(2018-12-13) Cosmonauts Cut Into Soyuz Docked at the ISS During Nearly 8-Hour Spacewalk
(2018-11-03) Roscosmos Completes Investigation into October Soyuz Failure, Finds Assembly Issue
(2018-10-03) Controversy Over ISS Leak Continues, Spacewalk Planned for November
(2018-09-14) NASA and Roscosmos Release Joint Statement on ISS Leak Amid Rumors
(2018-09-06) Russian Space Chief Vows to Find "Full Name" of Technician Who Caused ISS Leak
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 06 2018, @10:43AM (2 children)
Wait until they find out the guy's name is Alexander Ivanov. How many could there be?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 06 2018, @10:49AM
*Doctor* Who, if you please!
(Score: 4, Funny) by DannyB on Thursday September 06 2018, @01:35PM
Nice try. The name turns out to be Mikneed Ivodka.
To transfer files: right-click on file, pick Copy. Unplug mouse, plug mouse into other computer. Right-click, paste.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 06 2018, @10:48AM
His name is Strelochnik.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Thursday September 06 2018, @10:49AM (6 children)
https://www.engadget.com/2018/09/05/iss-drill-hole-nasa-roscosmos-sabotage/ [engadget.com]
Yes, let's not rule out the possibility of astronauts aboard the ISS in space sabotaging the thing.
Expect more weirdness as Commercial Crew finally happens, ending U.S. reliance on the Russians, the ISS stops getting used around 2028, and China launches its international-friendly space station [soylentnews.org].
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 3, Funny) by J_Darnley on Thursday September 06 2018, @11:41AM (3 children)
The 100% accurate documentary film Armageddon clearly showed that people get space dementia and go crazy with the remotely operated minigun.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Thursday September 06 2018, @01:37PM
I was more impressed with now NASA has been able to maintain the secret that shuttles could withstand multiple stoned impact strikes with large rocks at high speed.
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(Score: 2) by Bot on Thursday September 06 2018, @09:19PM (1 child)
I dunno if Armageddon is real but since very similar things happened throughout Space 1999 I tend to believe it.
Account abandoned.
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Thursday September 06 2018, @10:35PM
Ah, good times. Space 1999.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 06 2018, @02:59PM (1 child)
If it was someone on the IIS, then the leak would have registered right away, and they would not have filled it with glue (the glue would have been sucked out into space along with the escaping oxygen).
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 06 2018, @04:17PM
But IIS is already full of holes, why would someone bother drilling new ones?
(Score: 5, Insightful) by zocalo on Thursday September 06 2018, @11:44AM (8 children)
A) Someone made a mistake and was too afraid to own up to it for fear of personal repercussions, despite the much greater risk to those that might be harmed as a result
B) Someone with a serious and murderous axe to grind was left in a position to commit sabotage with what could have been catastrophic results
Both of wWhich also need to be combined with C) Quality control on critical components that is lax enough to make it possible for something like this to get into orbit in the first place
Not that that should let the original perpetrator (accidental or otherwise) off the hook, of course.
UNIX? They're not even circumcised! Savages!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 06 2018, @01:07PM (4 children)
C is a non-starter. You get quality by having the person doing the work do it right or know when he does it wrong, not by having somebody come by after him and try to check for errors.
A and B point to the same person. The 'Russian Space Chief' needs to look in the mirror to find the person that set up a situation to cause A or B.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Thursday September 06 2018, @03:03PM (3 children)
Um, no. You get quality control by doing the work correctly AND having someone unrelated to the manufacturer inspect that work and sign off on it.
You're welcome.
This sig for rent.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by DannyB on Thursday September 06 2018, @04:31PM (2 children)
Quality Control is about carefully controlling the amount of quality that can get through.
On Ars someone mentioned that this is probably a cultural problem. Item A. Someone maid a mistake and was so afraid of reporting it that they tried to fix it and hope nobody noticed.
This "we'll find the full name of who did this" is a symptom of that cultural problem.
Or as software developers know it: FDD.
(Fear Driven Development)
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(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 06 2018, @09:44PM (1 child)
FDD explains the morass of ineptitude that is called Windows. Also Gnome3 and the new flat-look apps. In the old days we used to call this regression.
(Score: 2) by MostCynical on Thursday September 06 2018, @11:55PM
Regression below the mean?
Or regression testing, where you check all the old
bugsfeatures still behave as expected."I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 2) by Aiwendil on Thursday September 06 2018, @01:55PM (2 children)
A is a lot more worrying. Considering that there already are glues that can form almost a completly coherent bound (and should last at least a couple of trips) with almost anything; what really creeps me out is the use of a poor selection of glue. This makes me hope for B since otherwise their recruitment has even worse isseus (ie, the entire lot cannot be expected to be at least good enough to cover up their own misstakes properly)
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Thursday September 06 2018, @05:33PM
Welllll........ from various parts of the story I get the idea that the guy drilling the hole was drunk (high a distant second choice) at the time, and did a quick CYA on his mistake. So he used whatever glue was ready to hand.
This is not something I'd stand behind, but it's my impression, and I'd bet small change at 2-1 odds.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 2) by Bot on Thursday September 06 2018, @09:21PM
Well... at least it's not chewing gum.
Account abandoned.
(Score: 2) by Alfred on Thursday September 06 2018, @12:45PM
(Score: 2) by Aiwendil on Thursday September 06 2018, @01:49PM (11 children)
Wait, what? They have to do a manual trace? Good thing they at least has sensitive enough sensors.
But really - how did they trace the leak? Did they listen very carefully? Release balloons (think about it)? Shredded a piece of paper and followed it? Eyeballed the entire inner hull of the ISS and capsule? Closed all compartmental doors to see where the pressure dropped?
What is the procedure? And why is it "eventually" instead of "almost instantly"?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 06 2018, @01:55PM
They detected a pressure leak then probably just sprayed some mist and saw where it went. It took awhile to show up since the glue needed to melt/whatever.
(Score: 4, Informative) by zocalo on Thursday September 06 2018, @02:06PM (6 children)
Because, despite what Hollywood likes to portray, a small hole in the hull of a spacecraft does not cause all the air within to rush out in a gale to the vacuum beyond in a matter of seconds (while retaining enough pressure for anyone still required by the plot to get to safety, of course). There's an analysis with the necessary math here [geoffreylandis.com], if you're interested; the example of a 1cm² hole in a craft with a volume of 10 cubic meters takes 6 minutes, so the smaller hole on the much larger ISS (388 cubic metres excluding any visiting vehicles, according to NASA [nasa.gov]) would take considerably longer to become a critical problem.
UNIX? They're not even circumcised! Savages!
(Score: 2) by Aiwendil on Thursday September 06 2018, @02:20PM (5 children)
I know depletion takes time (I'm a scuba diver, so I'm used to messing with pressure differences and gases).
I mean, why does it take more than a couple of minutes. The airflow really should be quite altered (and have a strong tedency towards the hole if you released something with low mass that can suspended in air (smoke, confentti (in zero G)) by the time the pressure drop is noted, why don't they have an automated "leak locator" for such instances? It should be faily easy to make in 2.5x2.5x2.5 (ie: cube 1in sides) cubes where you just stick one each to a wall in each module.
(Score: 2) by zocalo on Thursday September 06 2018, @02:42PM
The only reason this probably made the more mainstream news outlets was that the scratches around the hole led to accusations of some form of cover-up/sabotage. Were it not for that it would probably have little more than a footnote in the ISS's business as usual coverage.
UNIX? They're not even circumcised! Savages!
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 06 2018, @03:04PM (3 children)
You simply cannot reach the walls, because most of them are completely covered by instrument racks.
If you are searching for a non-obvious leak, first you locate the correct station segment by closing the doors sequentially and watching the pressure drop (or not). Since a malfunctioning safety system could wreak immense havoc by closing inappropriate doors, this must be a purely manual process.
Then you'll be listening, feeling the airflow, perhaps also spraying locator aerosol .... and *then* you'll be pulling experiments out of their racks one after the other to look at the actual walls. This is also very highly non-automatable. Not all experiments can easily be pulled clear (lots of eletrical, thermal, liquid and gas connections there in them racks ....). During the search, you'll basically be sticking your upper body into a crammed server rack to look at its back wall :-o (No, I'm not exaggerating)
Also, automatic systems usually fail at the worst possible moment (which is not neccessarily the moment they were designed for!). A well-trained(!) human brain is still the best known resource for solving infrequent, complex, vitally important problems in uncertain environments!
(PS: I'm a cave exploration diver, which is remarkably similar to spaceflight, although less complex by several orders of magnitude)
(Score: 2) by Bot on Thursday September 06 2018, @09:24PM (1 child)
> PS: I'm a cave exploration diver, which is remarkably similar to spaceflight
this is strange. My AI would have sworn it was a porn category. Recalculating....
Account abandoned.
(Score: 2) by MostCynical on Friday September 07 2018, @12:33AM
It is a porn category, but, as with general application of Rule 34, it is also a separate category unrelated to porn.
See also "rack"/"racked"
"Wack"
"Sack"
And "stick"
:-)
(
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 08 2018, @05:14AM
This is certainly true, but with an important caveat:
Humans are the best at solving infrequent, complex problems which progress slowly enough that you have time to think about them in a calm manner.
If you have to respond in 1ms or die, the computer has to do it.
If you have to respond in 1s or die, the computer should probably do it.
If you have to respond in 30s or die, a combination is allowable but a human must mostly rely on memorized rote actions.
If you have to respond in 3 hours or die, the process should be manual but with as many scenarios studied ahead of time as possible.
(Score: 2) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Thursday September 06 2018, @03:13PM
Many of your ideas are excellent. Talking out my butt as far as how you'd do it on ISS. On Earth you could make sure that you have your winds controllable (much easier to do on ISS, maybe, for anything except breathing by shutting down all fans) and then introduce something that is waftable ('clean' smoke, hyperfine talc, possibly even a rarified gas with a wand gas detector like how one chases a Freon leak) then try to chase it, although natural diffusion would make that one hard. Coupled with a visual inspection, or maybe you look for visual first then introduce your drift agent.
And eventually because it was a tiny leak. The hole was 2mm but patched with glue. Smaller the hole, less volume escapes, harder to trace.
This sig for rent.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Thursday September 06 2018, @04:35PM
Just guessing.
Wouldn't they first isolate by module to determine which module has the leak?
Once identified. Shut down fans in that module. Spray some mist into the air, seal the module, and watch the direction it goes.
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(Score: 2) by bob_super on Thursday September 06 2018, @07:13PM
The fifth big cylinder left of Zarya is a giant can of fix-a-flat.
(Score: 4, Touché) by Gaaark on Thursday September 06 2018, @10:36PM
Duct tape.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 07 2018, @12:29AM
Considering the Russian tradition of officials vowing to find culprits... Well, RIP random Jew.