The ISS Is Still Leaking Air, And The Hunt For a Hole Is Taking Longer Than Expected

Science Alert ^ | 3 SEPTEMBER 2020 | Suzie Neilson

[PeterPrinciple]

Still, he added, the leak is too small to be a threat to the crew or the station right now.
“The leak rate is still stable and well below the design specifications for the station and presents no concern for crew or vehicle safety,” Huot said.

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folks, get past the headlines and lies of the media

[BenLurkin]

Is Huot giving us the full story?

[Deaf Smith]

Erosion will make the leak a bigger problem.

[TigersEye]

Somebody is sneaking out to have a smoke.

[PeterPrinciple]

Erosion will make the leak a bigger problem.

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Reading the article , they are monitoring it and it is below specs.

This is fake news.

[Bayard]

They need to coat the station in something and see where the bubbles leak out.

Would there be a product that keeps viscosity at super extreme changes in temp?

[doorgunner69]

Freon worked well for leak testing until they banned it. Dunno if it will work venting into vacuum though.

[doorgunner69]

Gross, about what I think of smoking.

[Clay Moore]

“In the good old days of smoking on passenger airplanes, maintenance used to find weak spots in the fuselage by nicotine stains on the outside of the aircraft.”

There was some consternation when cigarettes were banned because the tar would seal the rivets and make the plane easier to pressurize. I think they ended up having to use some sort of sealer at the factory.

[Right Wing Assault]

This works well with high pressure but I'm how well it works on lower pressures.

Here's another that works on houses, but maybe not on space stations: Aeroseal.

https://www.greenbuildingadvisor.com/article/aeroseal-rolls-out-air-sealing-technology-for-houses

[Viking2002]

Ouch. That would require some fine calibration, expecially if it's hidden behind a panel of equipment. If it's a pinhole or a diameter thereabouts, I'd want to see if I could localize it to A: the specific compartment, then B: what quadrant therein. Then see what the temp scanner sniffs out. When an engineer tells you it's not going to be a problem, assume that it will be and treat it as such. What's the bigger issue here is, can the leak be in an external area? A line or equipment compartment mounted outside that may have been hit by a micrometeorite the size of a dust mite, or a fleck of paint from and old satellite that's been battered around since the 80's? I know NASA says they can track every last particle of space junk up there and even predict what housefly-sized part of Satellite A's broken fuel tank will collide with Satellite Z's broken antenna and when, but, can they cover it all? Really? If an external system that's connected to the compartments themselves has a breach in intergity, it could be registering inside the station without the station necessarily having a hole in it. Get what I'm saying? I'm sure there are redundant systems and anti-backflow valves all over the place up there. A plumber's nightmare. A titanium needle in a cosmic haystack.

[moovova]

[Secret Agent Man]

yeah the guy who said try to close off sections and see if they can tell if air is leaking would at least identify all the sections that have problems

then narrow it down within each problem section

it crossed my mind though what if the leaks were coming from the section couplers themselves, dunno

[Ozark Tom]

The broom handles caught fire too!

[Viking2002]

Excellent point on the couplings. I’m not an engineer so I don’t know what materials they may have used for the gaskets, but is it possible one that passed QC had an unknown defect, or that exposure to solar radiation is causing it so slowly break down? Not to be The Harbinger of Doom here, I’m just spitballing - I’m sure this has all been vetted or is being looked at - but if they found deterioration in multiple couplers from a common cause......

[Secret Agent Man]

well all gaskets that have rubber in em outgas over time

sunlight can help this accelerate

add in extreme temperatures and conditions

and that some have been up there quite awhile

[Secret Agent Man]

thing is different countries made different modules

so you get the variations in vendors and suppliers and materials

[IronJack]

I suppose dipping it in a water tank and looking for bubbles is out of the question.

[AlaskaErik]

Pop a smoke bomb and see where it exits the space station.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

At 1,005F, I guess they would! I never thought about that before.