2mm hole in ISS

[kerbiloid]

Spoiler

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/drill

Quote

drill
 noun (1)

Definition of drill (Entry 2 of 6)

1: an instrument with an edged or pointed end for making holes in hard substances by revolving or by a succession of blowsalso : a machine for operating such an instrument

2: the act or exercise of training soldiers in marching and in executing prescribed movements with a weapon

Dear NASA !
Please, be more specific when telling the astronauts that they need a drill..

 

[Cassel]

Does that means this Soyuz is lost or they can use it to re-entry?

[Terwin]

57 minutes ago, Cassel said:

Does that means this Soyuz is lost or they can use it to re-entry?

The part with the (patched) hole gets dropped before reentry, so the only real danger is (slow) loss of atmosphere should the patch come out before the module un-docks with the ISS(Astronauts need to pass through the patched part to get to the reentering part, so they can't just ignore it if it starts venting again).

[Scotius]

It's a very slow leak though - so no one will be sucked into the vacuum. Only really bad news is the fact, that it happened at all.

[Gargamel]

1 hour ago, Scotius said:

It's a very slow leak though

Slow enough the first successful fix was to stick one of their fingers in it. 

[tater]

Duct tape would hold it from undocking with the ISS to the point where they cute it loose for reentry, anyway.

[kerbiloid]

On 10/13/2018 at 12:32 AM, Gargamel said:

Slow enough the first successful fix was to stick one of their fingers in it. 

Spoiler

 

[Racescort666]

3 hours ago, kerbiloid said:

  Hide contents

 

Spoiler

That’s only for when you want your space station to time travel.

 

[kerbiloid]

https://translate.google.com.tr/translate?sl=ru&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=ru&ie=UTF-8&u=https://www.rbc.ru/society/02/11/2018/5bdc30ff9a7947252fb44b24?from=main2F&edit-text=

In December the ISS crew (specifically Kononenko and Prokopiev) will uncover the drilled Soyuz from outside to look if there are particles of insulation in the hole.
This would help to understand was the hole drilled on ground or in orbit.

Edited November 2, 2018 by kerbiloid

[sh1pman]

6 hours ago, kerbiloid said:

or in orbit.

This is so stupid. Wasn’t it just a conspiracy theory nonsense made up by media for clicks?

Last time I checked, psychos weren’t allowed on the ISS

Edited November 2, 2018 by sh1pman

[kerbiloid]

6 hours ago, sh1pman said:

This is so stupid. Wasn’t it just a conspiracy theory nonsense made up by media for clicks?

I have no idea.
Outer airlock doors of Crystal and Quantum-2 have been damaged in space.
One had been opened too soon, thrown aside by air pressure and bended, then bended more when trying to manually close.
Another one had been manually closed with a bolt floating inside.

Personally I believe in the on-ground deadline patch version.
(I.e. "a launch window" → "a deadline" → "to hurry" → "do it asap" → "let's bend the wall cover a little and drill something not seeing that properly" → "oops!" → "let's stick a chewing gum patch, nobody will know")

Edited November 3, 2018 by kerbiloid

[Gargamel]

Surprised nobody has mentioned this.  

Spacewalk to take samples from around the hole:

https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-46529422

[Reactordrone]

48 minutes ago, Gargamel said:

Surprised nobody has mentioned this.  

Spacewalk to take samples from around the hole:

https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-46529422

It was in the Russian launch and missions thread.

[kerbiloid]

A source reports that according to preliminary conclusion the hole had been drilled on the Earth.

https://translate.google.com.tr/translate?sl=ru&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=ru&ie=UTF-8&u=https://www.interfax.ru/russia/642188&edit-text=

[DDE]

On 11/3/2018 at 1:12 AM, sh1pman said:

This is so stupid. Wasn’t it just a conspiracy theory nonsense made up by media for clicks?

In hindsight, yes and no. Dmitry “Trampoline” Rogozin appears to have deliberately chosen the most inflammatory non-statements possible knowing how they will be interpreted.

And it’s out of his hands anyway. The samples are going directly to the FSB, which is the KGB minus the foreign intelligence section. That’s clearly not an industrial fault investigation if all the alphabet soup is involved.

[MaverickSawyer]

Yeah, as soon as I heard that the samples were going to the FSB, I knew that this was political. What the end goal is that benefits Putin, though, isn't quite so clear at present.

[Scotius]

Whoever made that hole, is now (or at least should be) sweating bullets. Let's hope not literally.

[kerbiloid]

Two sources say that the investigation results may stay classified.

https://translate.google.com.tr/translate?sl=ru&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=ru&ie=UTF-8&u=https://www.interfax.ru/russia/642307&edit-text=

They also say that during EVA the samples of the insulation have been cut off with jeweller's accuracy and will be delivered for research.

[sh1pman]

11 minutes ago, kerbiloid said:

cut off with jeweller's accuracy

More like butcher's accuracy (from what we saw).

[kerbiloid]

4 minutes ago, sh1pman said:

More like butcher's accuracy (from what we saw).

They had watched Salyut-7, the scene with the sledgehammer.

[Vexillar]

I think the Russians improvised pretty well.  Ideally there would have been tools tested for the job and some means of containing the debris (what do you mean, vacuum cleaners don't work in a vacuum?) 

In space you have to make do with what you have.  Even if it is Iron Age tech.

So far:

Theory 1 was a micrometeorite strike - retracted fairly quickly by NASA because of the drill marks, among other things.

Theory 2, from the Russians, was that the hole had been drilled from the inside, allegedly by American Astronaut(s), to force an evacuation so that one of the Americans could be treated for illness.

Theory 3 was that the hole was made on the ground and covered up (in more than one sense).

The reason for the spacewalk to examine the outside and retrieve samples is to confirm or deny that the hole was sealed up from the outside - in which case the hole cannot have been made in orbit.

Post the spacewalk, we can be sure that no damage was evident on the outside thermal blankets or micrometeorite shield - further discounting natural causes.  From the TV pics, it did appear that there was a significant glob of sealant pressed onto the pressure hull - far larger than the 2mm hole itself - which would be impossible to put in place from the inside.

Theory 3 therefore seems overwhelmingly likely, so yes, that would be highly embarrassing to the manufacturer (and, let's say, career-limiting to the individuals responsible).

It would be comforting to have that confirmed, even if the detail of the report was classified (along with the ground-based investigation as to who and how and why, that will inevitably follow).  But with the current state of International relations and sabre-rattling, it's perhaps not too surprising that the embarrassment goes to the top.

Happily, this incident (and the coincidental booster detachment failure) has not resulted in prolonged grounding of Russian manned launches.  There's no alternative at the moment, and being forced to leave the ISS unmanned for a lengthy period might have resulted in malfunctions or damage that were difficult or impossible to rectify.

[DDE]

5 hours ago, MaverickSawyer said:

Yeah, as soon as I heard that the samples were going to the FSB, I knew that this was political. What the end goal is that benefits Putin, though, isn't quite so clear at present.

Doesn’t have to benefit Putin. He’s not the only human involved here, the state machine (the ‘deep state’, if you wish) has a life and intertia of its own. And, as on the US side, it does stand to gain from deteriorating relations.

[kerbiloid]

An FSB investigation doesn't necessary mean political, it's just "very important".
Like in the American movies "Forget it. FBI now takes it."

[DDE]

8 minutes ago, kerbiloid said:

An FSB investigation doesn't necessary mean political, it's just "very important".
Like in the American movies "Forget it. FBI now takes it."

FBI isn’t OSHA.

And, thanks to a centralized MVD and the SK, FSB isn’t even nominally the FBI.

Edited December 14, 2018 by DDE

[kerbiloid]

27 minutes ago, DDE said:

FBI isn’t OSHA.

And, thanks to a centralized MVD and the SK, FSB isn’t even nominally the FBI.

KGB/FSB was also investigating criminal events like serial murders, depending on their scale. Everything possible to have a political value. It isn't SMERSH.

When an agricultural An-2 had fallen in our airport zone, between others we first informed ambulance, militia (police), fire department, FSB. Just because. So itself this means nothing except importance.

Edited December 14, 2018 by kerbiloid