Conclusion that the hole was intended is not likely. The hole has its own drift mark, you can still get a drift mark after punching through your piece. There ar

Conclusion that the hole was intended is not likely. The hole has its own drift mark, you can still get a drift mark after punching through your piece. There are 3 drift marks, 3 other bit taps, 2 or 3 more bit taps further back where the panel jig-jogs (this was what they were shooting for in the first place, this dead space where the bit could punch through safely.) Most people that drill a lot of holes in metal have the finesse and dexterity to know when you've punched through a piece. Whoever did this drilling does not have those skills. When you hand hold a piece like this you rely on gravity and can put your weight down firmly against it so it doesn't move, even after punching through. Much tougher to do in space with no gravity, you need to use the frame itself to push against. If this was done on the ground it would have to be by a complete incompetent or drunk individual to make 8-11 damaging marks on the frame. Secondly in the second photo you see a padding that would partially cover this, it looks undamaged, meaning they lifted this padding for the explicit purpose of using that jig jog dead space in the frame as their 'punch through area.' Lastly, since I've been in this situation many times, whatever they were drilling through would not fit on the frame in the orientation they needed for some of the holes they were planning on drilling, and thus this is likely why they missed their dead space safety area. The debris from this would now be floating where ever so impossible to use that to determine guilt from clothing. The only thing they can use is either preflight photos (the padding covered most the damage perhaps) or send every drill bit on the station back to earth for analysis; drifting your bit even on aluminum alloy will leave a signature. Correlate that with use records for component replacement times. You're also looking for components with holes in them that don't match the blueprints. When you're on a 'boat' though, sometimes these types of repairs are assumed and undocumented though (especially when you screw up.) 50/50 chance this was an astronaut or a very drunk contractor on ground. The most disturbing evidence here is the drift mark before the hole among the other bit tap marks. It implies the person drilling it did not have mental focus.