A section of the International Space Station is leaking, which could have ‘catastrophic’ consequences, according to NASA.
The segment of the ISS, which is controlled by Russia’s space agency, Roscosmos, is potentially heading for a failure of a scary nature as pressure and air bleed out.
According to officials from Roscosmos, cosmonauts are attempting to patch the area, but NASA and the agency are at odds about how severe this issue really is.
The size of a football field, the space laboratory absolutely has to remain in certain conditions to host astronauts, which ensures that the area is pressurized and breathable gases.
However, leaks have become an issue since first being identified in 2019 in a tunnel connecting the Russian Zvezda model to a docking port, which allows crafts carrying cargo to enter.
The Russian controlled section of the ISS is leaking (NASA)
According to a report from NASA’s Office of Inspector General, the leaking has reached new heights, prompting US officials to determine that it could be a threat to the crew on board.
Former NASA astronaut Bob Cabana, who is chair of the agency’s ISS Advisory Committee, shared that the agency ‘has expressed concerns about the structural integrity of the (leaking module) and the possibility of a catastrophic failure’.
Cabana revealed that although Roscosmos astronauts have attempted to patch areas in the ISS, the team ultimately ‘does not believe catastrophic disintegration … is realistic’.
He added: “The Russians believe that continued operations are safe — but they can’t prove that to our satisfaction.
“And the US believes that it’s not safe, but we can’t prove that to the Russian satisfaction.”
Now NASA wants independent experts from both sides to take a look so that the two agencies can come to a mutual agreement, with the US team already staking the necessary steps to create such a team.
However, Russia has not.
NASA astronaut Michael Barratt explained during a November 8 news briefing: “We’ve taken a very conservative approach.
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The US and Russia have yet to come to an agreement (NASA)
“It’s not a comfortable thing, but it is the best agreement between all of the smart people on both sides — and it’s something that we as a crew live with.”
What makes the issue worse is that the cracks are ‘very small, not visible with the naked eye and have brackets and pipelines near them, making it difficult to get diagnostic tools into these areas’ explained NASA to CNN.
While Russian experts believe vibrations are causing ‘high cycle fatigue’ or something else that creates cracks is at play, NASA thinks it’s down mechanical stress, ‘residual stress’ or the manufacturing of materials.
NASA’s Office of the Inspector General report noted that while both parties agree that the area would have to be shuttered if it reaches an ‘untenable’ level, they have yet to agree on what that term means.
“The station is not young,” Barratt said. “We will expect to see more wear and tear in various other places.”
As for now, it’s a waiting game to figure out how to come to a mutual agreement on the issue and to figure out a workable solution.
UNILAD reached out to Roscosmos and NASA for comment.