Posted on 09/04/2018 4:02:13 PM PDT by grundle
Late last week, the astronauts aboard the International Space Station woke up to some distressing news: There was a leak somewhere on the station, and air was escaping into space. After an extensive search, the leak was finally found and plugged with tape and gauze, and the air pressure inside the station has been stabilized.
But now that the crisis has passed, there’s a new concern for the astronauts and the space agencies that manage the station. How exactly did that hole get there in the first place? At first, the theory was that a stray micrometeorite collided with the station and punctured a hole in the wall, but examination of the hole itself suggests that it was made by human hands, perhaps deliberately.
Looking at a photo of the hole, it looks less like a puncture caused by a small meteorite and more like a hole that was purposefully drilled. That's not just a layman's observation either. Dmitry Rogozin, the Director General of Russia’s space agency Roscosmos, suspects that the drilling was done with the intention of causing a leak. “There were several attempts at drilling,” he said in televised comments, by a “wavering hand.”
(Excerpt) Read more at yahoo.com ...
“The Russians” must have done it! Quick, call Bobby Mueller! Who did Michael Cohen pay to do this? Make him confess!
I can understand it. After all this time, farts have to make up a pretty significant portion of the air up there.
probably someone concerned about noxious fumes that can’t be scrubbed and also the cure time (or not) of any sealant exposed to space temps.
Last headline was the Russians knew about the hole and plugged it earthside with epoxy that froze grew brittle in space and popped out like a cork. After the Americans fixed the leak temporarily with gauze and tape while ground control worked out a permanent fix, the Russians pulled that off and went the same epoxy route that failed. Hopefully they used ‘space epoxy’ and not the stuff that grows brittle with cold or they might end up with a larger hole, leading to cracks, leading to not-healthy results.
Why not who
I don't see stamping, I do see a couple scuffs where the chuck rubbed against the rib that look a little like black QA stamps.
Several false starts and drill bit skipping. Miscreant was either quite drunk/drugged or very nervous, or unable to properly brace in zero g.
Actually I wouldn’t have a problem with tape if it was duct tape. Given the circumstances I’d put a few layers on. The gauze is just weird.
Wavering hand ????
Sounds like someone had shakes from too much vodka......
Is this damage something that would have survived blastoff? obviously that photo would have to be from inside the ship, and if those are scuff marks, was drilled from inside. Maybe there is an alien virus that is taking over the crew members one by one? Like in that movie “The Thing”. Where the members turn paranoid, etc.
If the hole was drilled while the ISS was in orbit, someone would have been alerted to the drilling at that location. There should be tiny pieces of residue of the patch. That residue can be traced to its origin. They need to patch the hole from the outside so they can scrub out the hole for any trace substance. Then send the sample back to earth.
Are there drills with bits that size present on the station now? If not, then it’s likely pretty old, made during earthbound construction and patched. Shakey work like that looks like a 5 vodka lunch.
Only astronauts in the space station.
You'd think they would carry an emergency tool just for this type of problem. Use a handheld rivet-gun with rivet-nuts, apply sealant on the rivet-nut, insert into hole and squeeze the rivet-gun trigger. Then insert a bolt. No drilling necessary, no tap needed.
thinking about it, the bit of gauze, likely single layer, would be pulled deeper into the hole by a leak. It’s pretty pliable so it’s not going to put any extra force on the hole. Also acts as an insulator to the tape and expands the surface area the tape can stick to, to help the tape resist any inward to outward pressure. It’s not a good idea to use to strengthen epoxy tho, because cotton thread doesn’t have good tensile strength.
We don’t know what surface preparation was done to the hole after the original plug popped, but if it wasn’t reamed, then the Ruskies put new epoxy on top of shreds of old epoxy with a prayer the remaining old epoxy would hold. Another recent headline said the epoxy fix has already developed a bubble, so either it’s curing too fast and the solvents are accumulating in a bubble, or there’s still a leak, at the base of the bubble. The problem gets a bit more complicated because the final fix now has to deal with two failed applications of epoxy.
No cosmonaughts? Odd that Russia would abandon the station to a purely American crew.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.