Space station crew moved after gas leak fears

[FloatingFatMan]

Crew members were evacuated from a US segment of the International Space Station after an ammonia leak was suspected.

But Nasa officials now say a computer problem probably created the false impression of leaking coolant.

The Russian space agency emphasised that the crew members had not been in any danger.

It said that mission control experts in Russia and the US had quickly co-operated to ensure the crew's safety.

As alarms rang out, the six crew members on the outpost put on breathing equipment and moved into the Russian segment after the alert at around 0900 GMT, closing the hatch to the US side behind them.

At the same time, flight controllers at Nasa's Johnson Space Center in Houston turned off non-essential equipment.

Within minutes, mission control gave an all-clear, but sent the astronauts scurrying back to the Russian side again when there was more evidence of a possible leak.

More at the source

Worrying!! I hope everything's OK!

[Ryoken]

Waiting for FOX News to find a way to blame this on the Metric system. Or maybe ISIS can take credit?

 

Either way, this is why the ISS is compartmentalized.

[DocM]

Looks like a series of false alarms.

Part of it is a MDM (modilator/demodulator) that takes several sensor inputs and multiplexes them, then it sends the data out through a serial interface. One chip fails and you've got alarms everywhere. MDM's are all over the station.

These weren't the only alerts, but one by one they're knocking them down. No problems so far. Cycling the power on a suspect MDM cleared many errors.

They're going back into the US section tonight with masks & filters to do direct sampling and other checks.

What may or may not have caused this is charged particle events from a Class M solar flare earlier in the day.

[bguy_1986]

Waiting for FOX News to find a way to blame this on the Metric system. Or maybe ISIS can take credit?

 

Either way, this is why the ISS is compartmentalized.

I'm waiting for MSNBC to blame global warming or republicans...

Looks like a series of false alarms.

Part of it is a MDM (modilator/demodulator) that takes several sensor inputs and multiplexes them, then it sends the data out through a serial interface. One chip fails and you've got alarms everywhere. MDM's are all over the station.

These weren't the only alerts, but one by one they're knocking them down. No problems so far. Cycling the power on a suspect MDM cleared many errors.

They're going back into the US section tonight with masks & filters to do direct sampling and other checks.

What may or may not have caused this is charged particle events from a Class M solar flare earlier in the day.

Do solar flares cause a lot of problems we don't hear about?  I've always heard when we have them and that it can cause problems, but it's not too often to actually hear it cause problems.

[Tomo]

Waiting for FOX News to find a way to blame this on the Metric system. Or maybe ISIS can take credit?

 

Either way, this is why the ISS is compartmentalized.

Clearly the ISS is a muslim only zone where non-muslims don't go.

 

Seriously though this is all just precautionary stuff until they work out the real issue.

[Ryoken]

Indeed.. In space, it's always better to play it safe. There's no margin for error if you're wrong.

[DocM]

I'm waiting for MSNBC to blame global warming or republicans...

Do solar flares cause a lot of problems we don't hear about? I've always heard when we have them and that it can cause problems, but it's not too often to actually hear it cause problems.

It depends on their strength and if you're in space or on Earth.

They're mostly streams of energetic charged particles (protons and electrons), neutrons and ions, so by ionization they can induce faults like bit flips in CPU's, chips and memory devices.

This was a medium strength flare, but large ones (X class) have been known to disrupt radio and satellite comms or even knock out power grids. The effect is similar to an electromagnetic pulse weapon or the EMP from a small nuke.

Quite a few on-Earth memory, chip and storage faults are from energetic non-solar protons ("cosmic rays").

On the biological side in space, they are a form of ionizating radiation and so can damage DNA. They can also induce X-rays when they hit dense matter like metals, which have their own radiation effects. This is why space stations have 'safe harbor' areas with extra shelding.

How powerful can a single subatomic particle hitting Earth's surface get? In 1991 a cosmic proton was detected known as the "Oh-My-God!" particle, which had an energy of 50 Joules. That's roughly a 62 mph (100 kph) baseball.