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Two Cosmonauts Find Icicle Hanging from an Air Pipe

posted by martyb on Wednesday September 17 2014, @06:13PM   Printer-friendly
from the saving-silent-solyut-seven dept.

juggs writes:

In no way is this news or a scoop, but who can resist the tale of plucky cosmonauts calmly relaying such nuggets from a dead-in-the-water space station as:

Savinikh: "We're trying to turn on the light now. Command issued. No reaction, not even one little diode. If only something would light up..."

and

Savinikh: “I’ve gotten the Rodnik schematics. Pump connected. The valves aren’t opening. There’s an icicle sticking out of the air pipe.”

Yep — all the makings of a sci-fi straight to TV movie… icicles hanging out of air pipes indeed!

However, it is not. It is the tale of two cosmonauts sent to try to recover the dead in low earth orbit Salyut 7 back in 1985. The included cosmonaut to earth communication transcripts would be comedy genius had they been scripted, if only as a parody of calm professionalism in a seemingly absurd predicament.

Over to Ars Technica for the piece: http://arstechnica.com/science/2014/09/the-little-known-soviet-mission-to-rescue-a-dead-space-station/

 
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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Alfred on Wednesday September 17 2014, @06:25PM

    by Alfred (4006) on Wednesday September 17 2014, @06:25PM (#94640) Journal
    This is a space station right? Like in outer space and all. How does a an icicle hang in zero G's?
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  • (Score: 2) by richtopia on Wednesday September 17 2014, @07:03PM

    by richtopia (3160) on Wednesday September 17 2014, @07:03PM (#94658) Homepage Journal

    This was my reaction also. I suspect is it either a pressurized leak (giving direction) or a result of microgravity.

    • (Score: 1) by forkazoo on Thursday September 18 2014, @06:30AM

      by forkazoo (2561) on Thursday September 18 2014, @06:30AM (#94816)

      An air pipe is pretty much going to be pressurized by definition, so if there was some humid air blowing through the pipe into a frozen station, you would get ice accumulation along the flow direction.

  • (Score: 4, Informative) by frojack on Wednesday September 17 2014, @07:19PM

    by frojack (1554) on Wednesday September 17 2014, @07:19PM (#94662) Journal

    Hanging was in the title, but the summary and the story simply said "sticking out of".
    Rodnic was the name of the water system aboard the spacecraft, and the whole thing was frozen, and Ice or water was extruded out of a vent pipe and froze in place.

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  • (Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 17 2014, @07:29PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 17 2014, @07:29PM (#94665)
    Missed the obvious way to ask the question. "How's it Hangin'?"

    • (Score: 2) by Gaaark on Wednesday September 17 2014, @09:06PM

      by Gaaark (41) on Wednesday September 17 2014, @09:06PM (#94683) Journal

      and the obvious answer: long and to the left, thanks! :)

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  • (Score: 2) by dyingtolive on Thursday September 18 2014, @12:17AM

    by dyingtolive (952) on Thursday September 18 2014, @12:17AM (#94739)

    Probably beautifully, assuming there is no force directing it's growth.

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