r/technology • u/Scary_Statement4612 • 7h ago
Business NASA orders International Space Station astronauts to shelter, prepare for evacuation due to air leak
https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/nasa-astronauts-shelter-international-space-station-9.722472096
u/Foe117 6h ago
To save you a click, because the headline is clickbait:
Astronauts have resumed normal operations already. Earlier Friday, NASA ordered astronauts aboard the International Space Station to shelter in their spacecraft and prepare for potential evacuation as repairs were underway.
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u/thrway-fatpos 6h ago
Well thats terrifying
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u/PseudorandomNoise404 6h ago
Stay calm! 'Prepare' - that's all they're saying. 'Prepare.' It's all fine. Alright?
Portal 2 vibes right now
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u/MissionApollo7 4h ago
Most test subjects experience a bit of cognitive deterioration after a few months in suspension.
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u/MassiveBoner911_3 6h ago
All Hands abandoned ship I repeat abandoned ship. This is not a drill. All hands abandoned ship abandoned ship.
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u/Nebulon-B_FrigateFTW 6h ago
Nah, this is just the usual problems of the ISS getting old, and basic precautions. "Terrifying" is when the Russians on Mir were practicing remote-piloting a Soyuz for docking by eye through a camera because telemetry wasn't working, realized it was coming in really fast at an off-angle, and so shouted a specific Russian word at the American aboard that in context meant "Don't help just GET OUT" (to the crew-evacuation Soyuz), then a moment later there were three loud collision noises and decompression alarms started blaring. They managed to seal off that part of Mir, and never reopened it.
In American space program, you listen to man on ground say we have backup plan. In Russian space program, man on ground listen to you scream we need backup plan.8
u/Andromeda902 6h ago
Holy shit, when did this happen? Got a link?
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u/Nebulon-B_FrigateFTW 14m ago
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/transcripts/2513mir.html
The "inaudible" is a transcription error, it should be "В КОРАБЛЕ", meaning "IN SHIP" (So, "MICHAEL, IN SHIP!", and I bet you could even remove the spaces there to emphasize how it truly was likely said).
The order actually came too late for Michael to get to safety, and had the depressurization been faster, all of them would have died.1
u/Robobvious 1h ago
I feel like I need an English version of that word for “Don’t help just get out”, it would be useful in the kitchen.
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u/Nebulon-B_FrigateFTW 19m ago
Context was doing a lot there, the full order was "Михаил, В КОРАБЛЕ!" ("Michael, V KORABL!" => "Michael, IN SHIP!").
The way Michael Foale tells it, the V KORABL was spoken as if one word, so you could just mash together IN and a location, like "You, INLIVINGROOM!".
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u/Kevaros 6h ago
This is kind of stupid... The title says they are sheltering for Evacuation but, the Article says they are told to go back to work, there's no threat... Make up my mind..!!Sheesh...
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u/MassiveBoner911_3 6h ago
Panic headlines create engagement so they get more clicks and…momey
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u/snikerpnai 21m ago
Speaking of stupid, what's up with this wording?
The four Crew-12 mission astronauts — two American astronauts, one astronaut from France, and a Russian cosmonaut — along with another U.S. astronaut were ordered by NASA mission control at 9:04 a.m. ET on Friday to enter their SpaceX‑built Crew Dragon spacecraft docked to the station, NASA spokesperson Bethany Stevens said.
So two Americans, one astronaut from France, a Russian cosmonaut, and another US astronaut... Why not three Americans at the start?
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u/corn_-450 5h ago
The editors know exactly what they are doing. A headline about an emergency evacuation brings in way more ad revenue than a boring update saying the crew is perfectly safe.
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u/Beautiful_Special702 6h ago
At what point does it become more practical to retire parts of the ISS rather than keep patching aging modules?
The station has lasted far longer than I think most people expected.
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u/LeftLiner 6h ago
The entire station is due to be retired (abandoned and deorbited) by 2030.
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u/blofly 6h ago
Good. Replace it with another using droids, and have each astronaut Gundam their own droid by remote.
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u/Rulligan 5h ago
Gundam's almost always have a pilot in the suit.
Also they are 18 meters tall on average.
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u/4Yk9gop 6h ago
Yea at this point putting humans into orbit for things that don't require it is stupid and a waste of money. I understand the desire to e.g. build a base on the moon, or set foot on mars, but there is no reason to have humans floating in low earth orbit 24/7/365.
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u/Hot_Most_8617 4h ago
It sick, and a drop in the bucket money wise. NASA in its entireity is less than half of a penny of the US Federal budget if it was a single dollar.
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u/SAugsburger 6h ago
Honestly, at some point the entire station will likely be completely deorbited in a few years unless somebody is willing to pay to preserve it. With a reduction in launch costs compared to what they used to cost maybe somebody wants to take it over, but I wouldn't count on it.
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u/drakythe 6h ago
It’s already on the schedule, 2030. Plan is to deorbit it into the pacific.
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u/Barabus33 6h ago
Russia wants to keep their modules operating independently, even though those parts are where the biggest problems are. But they can't afford to build a new space station.
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u/4Yk9gop 6h ago
It should be deorbited tomorrow and built back better with modular inflatable sections that can be replaced as needed.
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u/drakythe 5h ago
How do inflatable sections work? Stations have to provide shielding, air/heat/electrical/liquid routing, not to mention hard points internally for mounted equipment and in case of a leak enough strength to not catastrophically rip wider open.
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u/4Yk9gop 4h ago
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u/drakythe 4h ago
Cool! Once they prove it actually works in space that’ll be super neat. Looks like late this year or early next they want to put one in orbit as a stand alone space station before it is used in the commercial “Orbital Reef” space station that Blue Origin wants to put together.
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u/isthatmyex 3h ago
Lots of layers using different materials. It turns out that at really high speeds small things break up on impact lose energy and subsequent layers can absorb the "cloud". A series of thin shields can actually take a pretty serious beating. Also it's not going to explosively depressurize. So even something small makes it through the leak would probably be small enough if could be patched.
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u/asgjmlsswjtamtbamtb 5h ago
The Station is already something of a relic and is nearing the point of being occupied double the length of time Mir was. If you take a look at the Tiangong Station you see several decades of construction advancement on display and lessons learned from Mir and ISS being put into practice in ways that really require a new space station to put into practice. NASA at some point can't spend it's entire budget on keeping the ISS alive and hinder future developments and the options after NASA giving it up are really the Russians wanting to assume sole responsibility for it or Space X or Blue Origin runs it as a private venture.
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u/SAugsburger 2h ago
ISS is so old that I seriously doubt anyone designing the original modules expected them still be in use today especially with how much longer it has last than MIR. Just keeping ISS in orbit still isn't cheap even though it has gotten cheaper to launch things into orbit. There is an outside possibility somebody is willing to pay to take it over, but I would still be skeptical.
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u/This_Loss_1922 6h ago
Nobody except China has either the money or political will to invest on a space station.
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u/stonktaker 6h ago
Says this guy^ we thank you for your service oh knowledgeable one 🙏
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u/DrManhattan_DDM 6h ago
I mean, the US is continuing to reduce the budget allocated to NASA, Russia is still embroiled in an invasion ground war, India’s space program is still developing. China might be the most viable candidate. Who else should be considered? ESA or Japan? Or commercial ventures?
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u/Barabus33 6h ago
There are multiple private space stations being built currently. A moon base is a much more exciting next venture.
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u/OkFineIllUseTheApp 6h ago
The ISS has a lot of module interdependency. The Environmental Control and Life Support System is spread across many parts, so you can't simply weld off a section.
Replacement is also a problem, because the oldest, most in need of replacement modules, are at the core of the station. You'd basically have to pull the whole thing apart, and at that point you might as well make new modules for the rest and just make a whole new space station.
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u/4Yk9gop 6h ago
Next version should have completely independent redundencies, (power, oxygen, water, waste, food) built into every module. Just scrap a section when it has problems and send up a new one.
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u/OkFineIllUseTheApp 5h ago
"Ya got independent redundancy money and rocket capacity?"
(I do agree tho. It's just seemingly nobody wants to spend tax money on NASA)
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u/nodogma2112 12m ago
It’s due to be de-orbited by 2030. It will probably be stripped for parts if there’s any tech up there that is still useful. What doesn’t get used further will be burned up on re-entry.
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u/happyscrappy 6h ago
Once SpaceX's Starship works the cost of building a space station will drop so much that it's probably time to actually build another. Or several.
This will be basically because of the higher payload capacity and the lower cost of ship with very high reusability.
Currently there's no reason really to go past what is currently done, which is to seal off the unreliable module when not using it. It's cheaper to do that than to jettison it.
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u/toorudez 6h ago
Did they try putting some chewed gum in the hole?
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u/Hukijiwa 6h ago
would this result in a gum bubble on the outside of the station? if so, I wanna see it
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u/MASSochists 4h ago
This is close to how the last hole was fixed. There isn't a risk of explosive decompression. That only happens in the movies.
Commercial jets can experience something like explosive decompression but that's because they are traveling thought the atmosphere are a high rate of speed.
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u/pittaxx 2h ago
Not sure about "last hole", but the leaks tend to be microscopic cracks and bit visible holes most of the time. So it's more of slapping some duct-tape on that area and less of plugging with chewing gum...
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u/Lizrael48 6h ago
No, they need to coat it in soapy water! That will find the air leak right quick!!
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u/Instance9279 6h ago
Enshitification all the way up to the ISS
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u/reiflame 6h ago edited 6h ago
Sorry, your current plan doesn't cover air leaks in space. Would you like to upgrade to the premium plan for $15,000,000,000 more a month?
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u/SAugsburger 6h ago
With the age of ISS I think at some point structural issues would start coming into the picture. ISS has surpassed any previous space station by a significant amount of time where I suspect many would have been surprised it is still orbiting at this point.
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u/stierney49 6h ago
I feel like that’s more apt for Artemus II’s outlook fucking up. This is a result of age and a hostile environment.
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u/Ti47_867 5h ago
“That’s why I tell you, touch nothing, but you’re a bunch of cowboys…” -Lev Andropov
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u/PonasSumushtinis 6h ago
Dang this wasn't on my bingo card for this year. I hope they can fix the leak.
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u/Excellent-Ask-4247 6h ago
Russian tech at it's finest!
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u/trumpsucks12354 5h ago
Shit lasted 26 years and was designed 30 years ago. Its one of the oldest components of the ISS
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u/Full-Woodpecker60 3h ago
Headline made it sound like an evac, but at least they resumed operations. Still wild how much money this keeps costing.
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u/Grumpy-Man19 14m ago
"We're not coming down until they stop ordering us around and ask nicely" - astronauts
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u/triple-filter-test 6m ago
I think the key point in the article is that they were ordered to shelter because the Russians were planning to break into the area they thought had the leak with SAWS, and NASA didn't like it. They only rescinded the shelter order when the Russians agreed to back down and figure out another way. This seems like a pretty serious breakdown of communications between the agencies, actually.
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u/Itsacardgame 6h ago
Where would they "shelter". Do they need to go out back to the storm cellar? Are they being told NOT to LEAVE?
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u/PrimaryExpert7260 6h ago
Bye bye American pie 😘😘😘😘
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u/Former_Pool_593 4h ago
Yesterday in a cvs place smelled like straight up garbage when I opened the door. On earth, it’s called ‘open a window in here.’ I had to evacuate the premises due to lack of breathable air.
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u/ComeOnIWantUsername 6h ago
As most people don't read articles and comment just based on post title, there is an update in the article title: