It was another farseeing Nox aboard the International Space Station , as the gang had to deal with a series of small problems , in what is starting to sound like a crushed disk .
As always , we have to preface things by saying the crew is safe , and none of the new problems are particularly serious . They ’re more of an annoying , but annoyances on the ISS seem to be in an teemingness these sidereal day .
The first problem to emerge last Nox was a broken toilet turn up in the Russian segment . Cosmonaut Anatoly Ivanishin report the job to solid ground controller , who suspect the issue is an air house of cards that formed in the organisation , accordingto Russian news agency Interfax . Anupdatefrom AFP propose the gutter problem has since been furbish up .
The International Space Station.Image: NASA
Had it not been fixed , however , the cosmonaut could have salvage themselves in a toilet locate in their Soyuz - MS-16 spacecraft , which is currently docked to the ISS . give way that , they could ’ve politely ask NASA for access to itsfancy unexampled $ 23 million lavatory , the Universal Waste Management System , which arrived at the ISS originally this calendar month . If those options were somehow out , the crew could ’ve justworn diapersnormally used during spacewalks .
A potentially more serious problem emerged by and by the same evening when the Russian oxygen supply system of rules — yes , thesame onefrom last hebdomad — broke down once again . Water used to generate atomic number 8 had run out , but , like the toilet , this job was evidently also define , AFP reports .
Located in the Zvezda module , the Electron - VM O supply scheme is one of two on the ISS , the other being NASA ’s Environmental Control and Life Support System ( ECLSS ) . NASA ’s system can sustain the six - phallus work party , and there are spare oxygen tanks available should things really go sideways .
And as if to add insult to injury , an oven used to warm up food for thought also bring out down , according to AFP . Yeah , it was one of those nights .
fit in to Russian news agencyTASS , all problems were conclude over the course of the night . A spokesperson for Russian space agency Roscosmos say : “ All of the place ’s organisation are operating normally , there is no risk to the crew ’s base hit and the ISS journeying . ”
Another problem on the ISS — a vexatious air leak that begin in September 2019 — has finally been located and temporarily fixed . Last week , Ivanishinfoundthe author of the leak by observe the trajectory of a floating tea leaf bag within the Zvezda module . Thetemporaryfix consisted of some froth prophylactic and — you guessed it — aduct taping - like strip known asKapton tape(Update : A reader would wish me to clarify that that Kapton tape measure is technically not canal tape — it ’s a polymer film plus adhesive material , while duct tape is fabric plus adhesive . Kapton tape can withstand immense temperature extremes , which is why it ’s often used on space vehicle . ) . Asimilar fixwas used in 2018 for another ISS leak . Ground experts are presently sour on a more long - full term solution , NASAreports .
ISS work party sealed the airleak using temporary means available at the place .
Currently , Chief Operating Control Group together with the@Space_Stationcrew is working out a platform of operations to for good varnish the outflow location.pic.twitter.com/WC0YyoqgKd
— РОСКОСМОС ( @roscosmos)October 19 , 2020
Ivanishin , along with fellow cosmonaut Ivan Vagner and NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy , wo n’t have to handle with these problems for much longer , as they ’re set up to regress to Earth this week . The ternion will undock from the Poisk faculty at 7:32 p.m. EDT on Thursday and get in at a landing situation in Kazakhstan at 10:55 p.m. EDT .
The International Space Station , it ’s comely to say , is set about to show its age ( the orbital outpost go out back to 1998 ) . When the Russian oxygen supply system break down last week , veteran Russian astronaut Gennady Padalka sound out all Russian faculty are “ exhausted ” and that they rely on choke equipment in dire penury of replacement , as RIA Novostireported . Given all that ’s been going on in the ISS recently , he ’s probably not wrong .
NASAScience
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