![Russia's Nauka module is seen attached to the International Space Station.](https://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/E7fNgB2XsAQ-c_h-800x508.jpg)
Roscosmos
NASA astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli looked out of the big windows on the International Space Station on Monday afternoon and saw that it was snowing in space.
Well, not likely snowing. But there have been flakes flying by that looked quite a bit like flurries. They emanated from one in all two radiators that service the “Nauka” science module attached to the Russian segment of the space station. The flakes were frozen coolant, and as a protective measure she and other crew members on the orbiting laboratory closed the shutters on the US segment windows.
Moghbeli and the opposite crew members were never in any real danger from the radiator leak, but the issue does raise serious concerns in regards to the viability of Russian hardware in space. That’s because that is the third such leak that has occurred with Russian equipment in lower than a yr.
It will not be clear what all of this implies, but let’s start with what we do know in regards to the three leaks, after which discuss what all this might mean for the long run of the International Space Station.
Coolant all over the place
The issues with leaky radiators began about 10 months ago.
On December 14, 2022, as two cosmonauts were preparing to conduct a spacewalk outside the space station, the Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft docked nearby began to leak uncontrollably from its external cooling loop. This Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft had been attributable to bring cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin, in addition to NASA’s Frank Rubio, back to Earth in March. A substitute vehicle needed to be sent as much as bring them home, and so they landed safely last month.
Moreover, on February 11, 2023, the Progress MS-21 supply ship attached to the International Space Station lost pressure in its external cooling system. Once more, the entire coolant on board a Russian spacecraft leaked into space attributable to a rupture. This vehicle, which had been docked to the ISS since October, later detached and returned to Earth’s atmosphere without incident.
After these problems, Russian officials blamed each of those coolant system leaks on “an external impact,” pointing toward a micrometeorite or small fragment of orbital debris because the cause. Although privately some NASA officials questioned whether each of those leaks really were brought on by impacts in space, relatively than technical defects with the hardware, publicly the US space agency has gone together with the reason.
But then Monday’s incident happened.
A backup radiator starts leaking
The US and Russia each maintain their very own separate segments of the space station, but they share a standard source of power and propulsion. In 2010, Russian cosmonauts installed a radiator on their segment in preparation for a module to conduct scientific experiments. This “Nauka” module finally arrived in 2021, and after some initial difficulties, it has began to operate normally.
The Nauka module has its own radiator. In keeping with an interview conducted in August with a senior Russian space official, Sergei Krikalev, the aim of this backup radiator was to dump excess heat during scientific experiments.
Nevertheless, in an update posted Tuesday on the Telegram social media network, the Russian space corporation, Roscosmos, said no scientific experiments have been postponed thus far attributable to the coolant leak. Temperatures today remain comfortable, the cosmonauts report, and so they were in a position to exercise on a treadmill within the module.
NASA confirmed in a blog post that there look like no significant impacts to the crew and the space station from the newest leak.
The aging space station
The implications of the newest leak will grow to be more clear over time, but the general trend will not be good. Two coolant leaks attributable to external impacts already strained credulity—NASA has observed no such debilitating damage to its hardware lately. Will Russia claim that a 3rd leak was also brought on by an external force?
The coolant utilized by the Russians is fairly toxic, so there are also some contamination concerns as this material impacts various parts of the space station.
the long run, there are also a few issues laid bare by the newest leak issue. One is that the standard control of Russian space hardware has been slipping lately, due at the least partly to an absence of investment by that country in its space workforce and facilities on the bottom. This probably was the explanation for a number of of those leaks. The opposite issue is that the International Space Station is aging, with certain elements now having flown for nearly 25 years in space. NASA hopes to maintain flying the space station until 2030, but will it and its partners have the opportunity to?
We should always know more information fairly soon. A protracted meeting between NASA, Roscosmos, and the opposite international partners is scheduled for later today, where this issue can be discussed.