Updates ISS UPDATES

[MattBaker]

I don't think he had a choice. The water blob was in his face. They said he was either tasting iodine in the cooling water or the dish soap-like coating on the visor.

I meant:

- Crew tasted the water in the suit and it had a "funny taste".

 

[N_Molson]

They're allowed to just taste the unknown liquid in someone's suit? Couldn't this stuff be contaminated with something? If I remember correctly there's poisonous lithium hydroxide in the Life Support System.

Tasting means putting the finger into the liquid, then taste your finger. The quantity of liquid ingested is extremely low, it is almost immediatly mixed with saliva. Even if there is a poisonous chemical, it is strongly diluted into the quantity of water.

It's a "technique" I've been using (and that everyone use) for sailboat maintenance, to check if the - doubtful - water that tends to accumulate at the bottom of the cabin is salty - in which case it can mean a porosity of the hull somewhere - or not - in which case it is only condensation or rain drops that made their way through the mast.

Also, in J. Linenger book(1), which spent 132 days aboard Mir, the cosmonauts were doing that to find the source of a cooling system leak.

(1) : Off the Planet: Surviving Five Perilous Months Aboard the Space Station Mir

 

[garyw]

They still don't know the source of the leak but have confirmed that it wasn't the water drink bag as first suspected.

Making his way back to the safety of the International Space Station's airlock, Italian spacewalker Luca Parmitano was unable to see or hear as water from a leak in his spacesuit slowly but surely filled his helmet with a floating blob of liquid that covered his eyes and ears.

"For a couple of minutes there, maybe more than a couple of minutes, I experienced what it's like to be a goldfish in a fishbowl from the point of view of the goldfish," he told KGO-TV in San Francisco Thursday.

"I was miserable, but OK," he said in a crew interview carried on NASA's satellite TV channel. "It was just a very uncomfortable feeling to be with your face underwater for all that time. But the reaction of the crew was outstanding, I think, the crew on the ground and the crew on board, (fellow spacewalker) Chris (Cassidy) really supported me, and I was just lucky to be back inside in no time."

Parmitano and Cassidy began their second spacewalk in seven days Tuesday morning, venturing outside the International Space Station to carry out a variety of assembly and maintenance tasks.

After the spacewalkers completed the initial two tasks on their to-do list, Parmitano noticed an unusual feeling of water on the back of his neck.

Within minutes, the amount of water increased, and began creeping around to the front of his helmet. Worried about the possibility of choking or worse, flight controllers at the Johnson Space Center quickly aborted the spacewalk and told Parmitano to head for the safety of the airlock.

"About half an hour into the EVA, 45 minutes maybe, Chris and I were ahead on our tasks and we were starting our third task and I felt some water on the back of my head and I realized that it was cold water, it was not a normal feeling, so I told the ground," Parmitano said Thursday.

"Chris came by to give it a look (and) he couldn't see anything. He took some pictures of it, but it wasn't until a couple of minutes later that we actually saw the water trickling in front of the helmet and then I felt it covering my ears. At that point, we called a terminate for the EVA."

Cassidy said there was no doubt the spacewalk had to end as quickly as possible.

"My own gut feeling, I knew it was time to end it when I saw the water creeping around his communications cap kind of right by his eyelids, and I know that was a significant amount of water to be in a helmet and it was time to go in," he told WDAY-TV in Fargo, N.D. "And that all happened in just a few moments, it was maybe four to six minutes that we were discussing it and quickly the plan developed.

"As all incidents happen, it's right when the sun was setting and right as it made things harder. So all those things sort of came together in a perfect storm, so to speak, for us to deal with."

As Parmitano made his way back to the airlock, "the water kept trickling until it completely covered my eyes and my nose, it was really hard to see," he said. "I couldn't hear anything, it was really hard to communicate. I went back just using memory, basically, going back to the airlock until I found it."

Within minutes, Cassidy joined him, the hatch was closed and the compartment was repressurized. As soon as the inner hatch was opened, Karen Nyberg and cosmonauts Pavel Vinogradov and Fyodor Yurchikhin removed Parmitano's helmet and soaked up the loose water with towels.

"They took off my helmet, wiped my face of all the water, about three pounds of water, I would say, and that was the end of it," Parmitano said. "For me, the worst part, as Chris mentioned, I was miserable but OK. He mentioned walking around with your eyes closed in a fishbowl. Really, that's what was going on at that moment."

Since then, the astronauts and engineers in Houston have been testing Parmitano's spacesuit to locate the source of the leak. So far, no obvious problem has been found.

"At this specific moment, we know where it did not come from," Parmitano said. "We know it did not come from the water bag that we use to drink and we know it didn't come from my LCVG, the liquid cooling garment that we wear under the suit.

"But the NASA specialists and engineers are still working really hard to find out exactly what happened, and I'm sure they will find both the problem and the solution."

 

[N_Molson]

From "well informed sources" :

- Given the observations from troubleshooting, the drink bag, leakage of the HUT liquid transport circuit lines, leakage from the LCVG and bodily fluid have been ruled out as sources for the internal water leak during EVA 23.

- The most likely path of the water leak (given the failure modes identified to date) is thought to be through the T2 port (helmet vent). For this path, the remaining credible failure sources are all in the PLSS and include a failure in the sublimator, the gas trap, an I-134 filter clog or check valve failure or a water separator failure. A failure in the HUT to PLSS interface is still technically in the fault tree, but seems unlikely.

 

[N_Molson]

Still from same source, astronauts could get an Orlan EVA suit advanced training while in orbit, as a safety in case of contingency.

 

[Cosmic Penguin]

Beware ISS users at Orbiter: there will be shifting in the position of some of the modules on ISS (specifically the PMM module and the Cupola) and the US segment docking and berthing port positions over the next 2 years! Details are in this article by Orbinaut Pete: NASASpaceflight.com: NASA planning ISS module relocations to support future crew vehicles

 

[Capt_hensley]

So Now IDA will be the new docking standard, and it will be attached to PMAs via APAS interfaces, that will more or less be permanent attachments. By the image of the IDA all connections will be internal or integrated. No external wires or tubes needed.

The question remains, what will be connected via IDA. Coms, Power, and Fuels are assumed, but whats the real story? Specs for the active side of the IDA would be great.

Oh Great now I have to upgrade my CBM-LIDS adapter to CBM-IDA.

Are the IDAs androgenous? or assigned gender?

 

[orb]

Are the IDAs androgenous? or assigned gender?

[ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NASA_Docking_System"]NASA Docking System - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[/ame]:

The NDS docking mechanism is androgynous, the first system to use low impact technology and the first system to allow both docking and berthing.

In form and function NDS bears some resemblance to the Androgynous Peripheral Attach System (APAS-95) mechanism already in use on the Pressurized Mating Adapter (PMA) attached to the International Space Station, but is not compatible with it so International Docking Adapters (IDA) will be attached to the PMAs, one at Node-2 forward, the other at Node-2 zenith.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Docki...craft#International_Docking_Adapter_.28IDA.29:

International Docking Adapters (IDA) will be attached to the Pressurized Mating Adapters PMA-2 and PMA-3 and convert their APAS-95 docking interface to the NASA Docking System (NDS)

 

[Capt_hensley]

NASA Docking System - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:

​

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Docki...craft#International_Docking_Adapter_.28IDA.29:

​

Thanks, Answerd my questions nicely.

Androgenous, however fixed passive while mounted to PMAs on ISS.
Later models to pass Liquids, gasses and pressures.
All electrical currently supported.

Changes to GWS CBM-LIDS adapters will be minor. But name change none the less.

 

[Donamy]

Beware ISS users at Orbiter: there will be shifting in the position of some of the modules on ISS (specifically the PMM module and the Cupola) and the US segment docking and berthing port positions over the next 2 years! Details are in this article by Orbinaut Pete: NASASpaceflight.com: NASA planning ISS module relocations to support future crew vehicles

I didn't see a change for the cupola in there. Did I miss something ?

 

[Cosmic Penguin]

I didn't see a change for the cupola in there. Did I miss something ?

Looks like I'm missing something. You are right - the cupola is staying at Node 3 nadir. The PMM will be moved to Node 3 forward and the PMA-3 (which will be re-fitted later) will now go to Node 2 zenith. The new berthing ports are Node 2 nadir and Node 1 nadir.

 

[Capt_hensley]

I didn't see a change for the cupola in there. Did I miss something ?

Its a different article, but they discuss the rearragment in more detail. I keep running into the "Your not authorized to view..." BS, the link is in the first NSF article above.

 

[Donamy]

The ISS AtoZ can make the changes easily, just have to make some IDAs.

 

[Capt_hensley]

The ISS AtoZ can make the changes easily, just have to make some IDAs.

Yeah, as I mentioned I'll be adapting my CBM-LIDS module with NDS docking adapter instead of ILIDS apparatus. Should be easy I've made an Adobe texture for SCS, and ILIDS, just gotta tweek it. I like ISS A-Z, it's fun and fairly easy for a NOOB like me. Moving my discussion to Gateway, to help keep this thread on topic.

---------- Post added at 05:11 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:08 AM ----------

This is the link that talks about moving the cupola

 

[Donamy]

Not likely to happen.

 

[Cosmic Penguin]

While the NASA/ESA/etc. astronauts have suspended their EVAs (well there aren't any more scheduled within this year anyway), the Russian cosmonauts are going out of the ISS again right now: http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2013/08/russian-eva-emu-troubleshooting-continues/

 

[IronRain]

 

[Notebook]

Re the posts from #1589 above, BBC article about the July EVA:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-23777804

N.

 

[Cosmic Penguin]

And the Russians are again out in the open for the second time in a week!

NASASpaceflight.com: Russian duo conducting EVA-35 – Luca recalls EVA drama

(article also has comments from Luca Parmitano from his "close call from drowning in space")

 

[MattBaker]

(article also has comments from Luca Parmitano from his "close call from drowning in space")

The more you read about it the scarier it becomes and the more you become the impression he was very lucky to get out of this umharmed.

---------- Post added 08-23-13 at 03:11 PM ---------- Previous post was 08-22-13 at 04:44 PM ----------

With yesterday's 5h55m spacewalk Fyodor Yurchikhin has spent 51h50m in EVA.
Which is the 5th longest time any astronaut has ever accomplished (he already has been number two for Russia).

And there's another spacewalk scheduled for November (just before heading home) together with Sergey Ryazansky.
But he's 6h40m behind the 4th, John Grunsfeld, so it could get a close call.