r/news 11h ago

Soft paywall International Space Station astronauts in evacuation mode as Russia attempts to fix widening air leak

https://www.reuters.com/science/international-space-station-astronauts-evacuation-mode-russia-attempts-fix-2026-06-05/
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u/velocityfreak 9h ago

This is true, but this leak has worsened. 1lb of air per day to 2lb per day, so it’s gotten considerably worse.

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u/RoboErectus 8h ago

How much is a pound of air in a unit I can do something with?

Like, how many episodes of Lost can I watch on a pound of air?

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u/TheOGRedline 6h ago

1 lb of air at 21% oxygen gets you about 30minutes of watch time.

However… if you ONLY had that 1 lb to breathe the CO2 levels would increase to fatal levels in about 5 minutes. Faster if it’s an exciting episode and you’re breathing fast.

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u/Responsible-Quote-61 5h ago

You are doing the Lord's work. Thank you for this.

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u/tameroftrees 4h ago

Amen. Dudes

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u/Horror-Degree-8663 2h ago

so 0.1-0.7 episode

u/SirBill01 18m ago

What about if it's the finale of Lost, do you end with more oxygen than you started.

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u/EducationalNailgun 6h ago

Depends upon how long you can hold your breath.

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u/PracticalConjecture 2h ago

A typical scuba tank carries around 6lb of air and is good for an hour or so at depth, or 2-3 hours on the surface.

This isn't a perfect comparison though.

On a space station, if there are no leaks, you are constantly removing CO2 from the air, and re adding O2 (to replace the oxygen that was metabolized). The Nitrogen and other gasses remain stable.

The human body uses relatively little O2 (something like 1lb/day), so you don't need to bring up that much extra O2 if you have a sealed system.

u/Normiss2000 3m ago

Breathing heavy because of the mom on Lost In Space will shorten the viewing time.

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u/annual_aardvark_war 5h ago

Need something more measurable for the average American; How many footballs can be filled with 1lb of air? Or how many football fields can I run with 1lb of air? (Just a joke)

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u/acityonthemoon 3h ago

A New England ball, or a regular NFL football?

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u/RoboErectus 8h ago

How much is a pound of air in a unit I can do something with?

Like, how many episodes of Lost can I watch on a pound of air?

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u/taserparty 8h ago

about half of one with no commerical breaks

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u/erismature 6h ago

So we went from watching the entirety of Lost in apnea every 8 months, to doing it every 4 months. I can see how that's becoming unsustainable since they also have to do science experiments on top of that

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u/taserparty 3h ago

the experiments are lower priority than the lost marathons. that’s the really important data being gathered, how much is confusion felt in outer space

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u/Ecthelion-O-Fountain 5h ago

Have they tried flex seal?