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NEWS: International Space Station Leaking Coolant


Levelord

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Quick! Send up the Shuttle... Oh right... :)

LOL... I was just about to post that very message. The problem is a politician being A Moany Ass... and cancelling Constellation without there being a backup system other than Soyuz for manned return. Whatever happened to the Crew Return Vehicle? If something disastrous happens to the ISS those guys are toast...

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LOL... I was just about to post that very message. The problem is a politician being A Moany Ass... and cancelling Constellation without there being a backup system other than Soyuz for manned return. Whatever happened to the Crew Return Vehicle? If something disastrous happens to the ISS those guys are toast...

They have Soyuz lifeboats docked ready to come home if they need to. Constellation was a many-billions-of-dollars organizational joke/nightmare and cancelling it was the right move. Even it had been funded properly by Congress from the start it wouldn't be ready yet. Focusing on COTS and shaking up the way the aerospace industry does things has been surprisingly fruitful despite the relatively low level of investment so far.

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...And the solar array powers the LIFE SUPPORT...

The Station has 8 solar array's the problem is with the cooling system with one of them. There is no immediate danger to the astronauts, in fact this same area has had amonia leaks before. it was repaired in 2010.

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The Station has 8 solar array's the problem is with the cooling system with one of them. There is no immediate danger to the astronauts, in fact this same area has had amonia leaks before. it was repaired in 2010.

...

...

I thought we were facing a potential total power shutdown...

For the record, I'm the kind of guy who's mind goes from 0 to Mach 100 in zero seconds flat...

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Rather ironic that the problem develops just as they are about to switch crews and the commander is about to be rotated back. In an Hollywood movie with respect for itself that kind of thing would have been an immediate cue for dramatic disasters and heroic struggles.

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They should do an Apollo 13 thing where things are going wrong and the crew have to race to repair it... Would raise more viewers like 13 did... bah... I'm a pessimist lol.

Didn't something similar happen to MIR?

Edit: Ooh... yeah... found this in the Wiki...

NASA astronaut John Blaha's account of the air quality on Mir - "very healthy, – it's not dry, it's not humid. Nothing smells." - contradicts sharply the concerns about air quality on the space station that Jerry Linenger relates in his book about his time on the facility. Linenger says that due to the age of the space station, the cooling system on board had developed a plethora of tiny leaks too small and numerous to be repaired, that permitted the constant release of coolant, making it unpleasant to breathe the air on board. He says that it was especially noticeable after he had made a spacewalk and become used to the clean air he had been breathing in his spacesuit. When he returned to the station and again began breathing the air inside Mir, he was deeply shocked by the intensity of the chemical smell and very worried about the possible negative health effects of breathing such heavily contaminated air.[37]
Edited by NeoMorph
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There is no immediate danger to the astronauts, in fact this same area has had amonia leaks before. it was repaired in 2010.

Which was years after the leak developed and they rerouted around the leak, if I remember correctly.

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Well, let's hope that SpaceX can send a dragonload of coolant and spare parts up asap.

If not, Antares has yet to try sending actual payload to space- they only tested their Cygnus mass simulator.

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Well, let's hope that SpaceX can send a dragonload of coolant and spare parts up asap.

If not, Antares has yet to try sending actual payload to space- they only tested their Cygnus mass simulator.

Space X is not working with NASA right now you know, if anything they would send it in a Soyuz.

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Why does it have to be SpaceX?

At the moment only Souyuz and SpaceX Dragon are able to service the ISS.

Although Antares did have a successful flight, I haven't heard anything since then- their craft might not be able to reach the ISS yet.

Edited by OdinYggd
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Space X is not working with NASA right now you know, if anything they would send it in a Soyuz.

What do you mean "not working with NASA"?

The spare pump is already on board the ISS, along with a sufficient supply of replacement coolant.

...And the solar array powers the LIFE SUPPORT...

There are quite a lot of systems that can be powered down before reaching the extreme situation of not having enough power for life support.

Also, shouldn't this thread be in the Off-Topic > Science Labs forum ?

They should do an Apollo 13 thing where things are going wrong and the crew have to race to repair it... Would raise more viewers like 13 did... bah... I'm a pessimist lol.

Didn't something similar happen to MIR?

Just about everything that could go wrong went wrong on Mir. They had toxic leaks, fires, collisions, decompressions, power failures... and toilet breakdowns!

Edited by Nibb31
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At the moment only Souyez and SpaceX Dragon are able to service the ISS.

Not quite true... there's only Soyuz for the manned side, but there's also Progress, Dragon, ATV. and HTV over on the unmanned side.

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