MESSAGE
| DATE | 2004-01-06 |
| FROM | Ruben I Safir
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| SUBJECT | Subject: [hangout] Woops -
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Russia Probes Space Station Pressure Drop
Russian Specialists Investigate Cause of Slow, Persistent Drop in Air Pressure on Space Station
The Associated Press
MOSCOW Jan. 6 ? Space specialists gathered Tuesday to investigate the cause of a slow, persistent drop in air pressure on the international space station, while Russian officials differed with Americans over the rate of the decrease and asserted that the problem presents no danger to the two-man crew.
Konstantin Kreidenko, a spokesman for the Russian space agency Rosaviakosmos, said a working group had been set up at Russian Mission Control outside Moscow to look for the source of the pressure drop, which he said was probably a small leak.
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"The situation is not dangerous for the crew," he said. "There is no cause for panic."
Pavel Vinogradov, a cosmonaut who works for Energiya, the company that builds Russian spacecraft, said that over the coming days astronaut Michael Foale and cosmonaut Alexander Kaleri would be closing off the station's compartments one by one and checking them for air-tightness, the ITAR-Tass news agency reported.
"The crew will have an enormous job to do in checking hundreds of valves and sensors," ITAR-Tass quoted Vinogradov as saying. He said specialists believe the source of the problem may be a faulty valve or a leak where a Russian cargo ship is docked to the module.
Foale and Kaleri have already done some checking. U.S. Mission Control told them of the leak just before their bedtime Monday, but said there were "no immediate concerns" and there was nothing for them to do at the moment.
Nevertheless, Foale later radioed back that the men had checked the accessible valves leading to the vacuum of space and found nothing wrong.
U.S. Mission Control first noticed the drop in pressure Jan. 1 and said the data showed a daily decline of about 2 millimeters of mercury. Engineers later ascertained that the leak actually began Dec. 22, NASA spokesman James Hartsfield said Monday.
As of Monday, the pressure had declined a total of nine millimeters over five days. That is equivalent to about one-fifth of a pound per square inch, Hartsfield said. Normal pressure inside the space station is 14.7 pounds per square inch, the same as at sea level.
Vinogradov, however, said pressure was dropping by 1 to 1.5 millimeters daily, according to ITAR-Tass, and Kreidenko put the figure at about 1 millimeter. "This means there is a difference of opinion," he said.
Kreidenko said oxygen supplies on the station are sufficient and that there are oxygen canisters that can be used as backup. But he said "it's unlikely that it will come to that" because the pressure drop is slow and should not be difficult to halt once the source is found.
Kreidenko said early Tuesday that the pressure was 740-750 millimeters of mercury, and that pressure on the now-scrapped Russian space station Mir had once dropped as low as 700 millimeters with no ill effects for its crew.
Vinogradov, however, said later in the day that sensors registered pressure of 715 millimeters abroad the station, according to ITAR-Tass. He said the safe pressure range for cosmonauts is 610 to 880 millimeters.
Vinogradov said similar situations had occurred aboard the Mir and were dealt with successfully, but that it could take more time to find the cause of the leak aboard the international space station because it is larger than the Mir and currently has only two crew members.
Foale and Kaleri rocketed into orbit from Kazakhstan in October and are to return there in April on a Russian capsule, the only means of travel to the station while U.S. shuttles are grounded in the wake of the Columbia disaster.
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