The International Space Station has a big problem. One that’s not new and getting worse. An inspector general report, hot off the presses, provides “details not previously released” about an air leak. It’s leaking faster and there’s not much NASA can do.
Space Station falling apart
NASA officials don’t like talking about “the perils of flying astronauts on the aging International Space Station, elements of which are now more than a quarter of a century old.” It’s cracking apart at the seams and leaking air.
Everyone knew about the leak for years. The public just learned that it’s a lot worse than the experts let on. Not only that, it started getting bigger. They have no idea what to do about it, either.
On Thursday, September 26, NASA’s inspector general released a report which “provides details not previously released by the space agency that underline the severity of the problem.”
Russia and the U.S. have been working together on the dilemma since September 2019. That’s when they discovered a small station module called “PrK” had an air leak. It’s a connecting tunnel between a Progress spacecraft airlock and the Russian made Zvezda module.
When first discovered, the station was losing “less than 1 pound of atmosphere a day.” This past February, NASA noted that it “was up to 2.4 pounds a day.” Only two months later, in April, it had nearly doubled to 3.7 pounds a day. That means air’s whooshing through fast enough it should be whistling like a tea kettle.
Every pound of air on board has to be imported and the shipping charges for freight from Earth are enormous. That’s not the worst part. It means catastrophic structural failure could happen at any time.
Keep the door shut
Even though they’ve been hunting for years, nobody has been able to identify where the module’s leaking. “Although the root cause of the leak remains unknown, both agencies have narrowed their focus to internal and external welds,” the IG report explains.
There’s no way to fix what they can’t find so to “mitigate the risk,” Mission Control suggests the station crew “keep the hatch on the Zvezda module leading to the PrK tunnel closed.”
They may have to shut the hatch permanently. That means “reducing the number of Russian docking ports on the space station from four to three.” While keeping the hatch sealed will cut down significantly on the amount of air boiling away into space, that’s not the only reason.
That crack could decide to suddenly blow out. If the hatch is open when it goes, the whole tin can would explosively decompress. Possibly sucking crew members right out into the vacuum of space.
No matter how old and decrepit the ISS is, were stuck with it for a while longer. NASA simply has to hold it together with bubble gum and bailing wire if that’s what it takes. It was expected to be replaced in 2028 and that’s not going to happen. They’re working on an extension until 2030.
Another problem is that even with several private commercial ventures on the drawing board, there isn’t another station design which could be ready for action by even 2030. Even if it leaks and smells bad, we may be stuck with it another ten years or longer.
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Author: Mark Megahan
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