NASA considers SpaceX to rescue ISS leak astronauts:
NASA is considering using SpaceX to bring three astronauts back to Earth from the International Space Station after the Russian spacecraft due to return the crew suffered a significant coolant leak.
On December 14, the Russian MS-22 Soyuz capsule, which is right now docked to the ISS, started spraying droplets of coolant into space. That's the coolant that's supposed to control the internal temperature of the podule, and it is reportedly now drained of that vital liquid.
[...] Officials are still assessing the situation, and will decide whether the Soyuz craft will be able to safely return Prokopyev and Petelin, as well as NASA astronaut Frank Rubio, to Earth in March. With a broken coolant system, the capsule may be unsafe for humans as it reenters our atmosphere. Russia is said to be pulling together plans to get the trio home.
[...] "We have asked SpaceX a few questions on their capability to return additional crew members on Dragon if necessary," she told Reuters on Wednesday.
It's not clear if a replacement Dragon capsule would fly to the ISS to fetch the three astronauts, or if they can go back on a SpaceX pod that brought NASA astronauts Nicole Mann and Josh Cassada, Roscosmos cosmonaut Anna Kikina, and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's astronaut Koichi Wakata, to the orbiting science lab in October.
The Dragon capsule those four boarded, named Endeavor, isn't big enough to carry both teams back to our planet, so multiple trips would be needed anyway to ferry all seven. There's another issue, too: all astronauts traveling in a Dragon spacecraft have to wear tailored SpaceX spacesuits, and the crew that arrived at the space station in the Soyuz don't have that fancy clobber.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Mojibake Tengu on Monday January 02, @07:08PM (4 children)
Deliberately suppressed information is, the Soyuz MS-23 with original swap schedule to launch in March, 2023 gets ready at Baikonur already to be launched in February if necessary, without any crew just to pickup a return crew, including one American astronaut.
So, the article only reveals the fun fact the Dragon craft is totally unusable for rescue operations if only fancy tailored space suit must be used in it. Bad design, I say.
The edge of 太玄 cannot be defined, for it is beyond every aspect of design
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Monday January 02, @07:16PM
I also find the news that they "considered" it to be hardly news. Of course they'll consider it, because it's not like they have a ton of options available and not considering it would be failing to do their due diligence. The headline here could be "NASA Bureaucrats Not Grossly Incompetent", but the people who seem to operate with the belief that Elon Musk in any way resembles either Jack Parsons or Tony Stark instead have to frame it as proof that SpaceX and their glorious hero was right all along.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 02, @08:17PM
Having a capsule that leaks out it's coolant is more of a bad design, I say.
And, of course, the Soyuz isn't capable of carrying back the astronauts who flew up in a Dragon capsule. Not only is it incapable of dealing with the SpaceX spacesuits, it isn't big enough for 4 people.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 02, @10:16PM (1 child)
Reading between the lines of this Smithsonian Air & Space Museum post, https://airandspace.si.edu/stories/editorial/spacex-dragon-launch-and-entry-suits [si.edu] it looks like what makes the SpaceX suits mandatory for use in Dragon is the connections to life support. The suit does not have integral "get me home" life support built in, so there must be an umbilical to the Dragon.
Yes, the suits are fancy (the exterior was prototyped by a Hollywood costume designer) but the actual reason they are necessary is more like this, https://xkcd.com/927/ [xkcd.com]
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 02, @11:51PM
The SpaceX suits do exactly what they were designed to do: keep the astronauts alive in case of the leak in the capsule.
Remember, the problem here is that the Soyuz sprung a leak. It has nothing to do with SpaceX.
(Score: 4, Informative) by pTamok on Monday January 02, @07:20PM (5 children)
Well, the lack of the Soyuz capsule is problematic for another reason: each Kazbek couch has a tailored liner, with individualized fit for each cosmonaut.
Smithsonian: Couch Liner, Anti-Gravity, Kazbek-U, Norman Thagard [si.edu]
British National Space Centre: The National Space Centre’s Most Spaceflown Artefact [spacecentre.co.uk]
Fit Check in Kazbek couch (Soyuz 712) (photo) [artemjew.ru]
It a big deal. If something goes wrong and a Soyuz has to do a ballistic return [popularmechanics.com], the G-forces can hit 8g to 10g. Having a properly fitted couch liner is necessary to survive that. (See also NASA Spaceflight.com (April 8, 2009):Soyuz investigation findings backed by nominal Soyuz TMA-13 return [nasaspaceflight.com] and Universe Today(April 21, 2008): New Facts Emerge from Soyuz Emergency Landing [universetoday.com])
(Score: 2, Interesting) by pTamok on Monday January 02, @07:33PM (4 children)
And of course, I found it after I posted. I remember a Soyuz landing reaching 21g, but couldn't find the reference.
(April 5, 1975) Soyuz 7K-T No.39 [wikipedia.org] - 21.3 g.
(Score: 1) by pTamok on Monday January 02, @07:57PM (3 children)
...and it may be that the liners are removable, so can be transferred from one Soyuz capsule to another, as that seems to have been a standard procedure at one point, with liners being moved from the newly arrived capsule at the ISS to the one already there, thereby allowing the freshest capsule to remain.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 02, @11:01PM (2 children)
This sounds like the foam-in-place seats used in some racing cars. The car comes with a generic "shell" where the seat goes. Before the driver gets in for a seat fitting, a large plastic bag with foam port is put into the seat. The driver gets comfortable (perhaps with some temporary fixturing) and then the foam (as a liquid) is injected into the bag. Often takes a few tries to get right, since the foam expands a lot and the driver may not be in quite the right position.
The final rigid foam insert may be trimmed for final fitting/adjustments and then covered with a thin layer of padding and upholstery. It pops in and out, so another driver can use the same car with their own insert.
(Score: 1) by pTamok on Tuesday January 03, @07:13AM (1 child)
I think you are right. I wonder if some generic crash-foam* would do a good-enough job for emergency purposes.
*The foam used by glider-pilots such as here: https://www.gliderpilotshop.com/air-protect-foam.html [gliderpilotshop.com] It is elastic normally, so easily conforms to your body, but stiffens up under shock. It can make all the difference to your back under hard landings.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 04, @12:29AM
Good find! Similar here, from a USA supplier, https://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/pnpages/01-01632.php [aircraftspruce.com]
This one claims "Confor Form (formerly called Temperfoam) is the conforming foam cushion that was developed for the “Astronaut’s Couch” back in the Apollo space program."
No connection to Aircraft Spruce except that I've ordered from them (ages ago) and received just what I expected.