4 ms·

Smoke alarms go off at the International Space Station

43 points by underscore_ku 5y ago

gizmondo 5y ago
ISS appears to be falling apart. Is it a change in publicity or real?
- plopz 5y ago
  Its actually falling apart, roscosmos has been saying their segments have outlived the expected lifetime of the station for a few years now.
- yardie 5y ago
  ISS has been running continuously for 22 years. Most earth based housing doesn't even have that level of uptime. If it were a cruise or cargo ship it would have been in and out of drydock 5-7 times. It's extremely difficult to have complex systems run continuously for decades. Unfortunately after we built ISS I thought there would be ISS2 or ISS upgrades planned. And I haven't seen anything like that.
  - gruez 5y ago
    >Most earth based housing doesn't even have that level of uptime are we including mud huts and/or poorly built apartments in chinese ghost cities here? If we only considered american timber framed houses, I don't see why 22+ years of "uptime" would be hard to achieve.
    - eric__cartman 5y ago
      Maybe OP meant 22 years of zero maintenance. Even though many houses are way older than 22 years (including the apartment I'm living in now) going more than two decades without something breaking is quite challenging. Granted a lot of the time it's a simple electrical issue, plumbing that needs to be repaired or paint that's peeling off the walls. Stuff that isn't vital for the structural integrity of the building. Because if it is tearing down buildings after 22 years and rebuilding new housing then yes, that is quite ridiculous and unachievable for most people.
      - gruez 5y ago
        >Maybe OP meant 22 years of zero maintenance Has the ISS not received any maintenance in the last 22 years either?
      - tgv 5y ago
        ISS hasn't been 22 years without maintenance.
    - yardie 5y ago
      You are not continuously occupying your home for 22+ years. It might feel like it during the pandemic but you regularly leave. You probably take 2-4 weeks off per year without worrying about if it's going to still be there. If your bathroom stops working you can go to the gym. If the power goes out it's simply inconvenient, but not life threatening. I'll reiterate; the ISS has been continuously inhabited for 20 years, non-stop, no weekends in the countryside.
  - conistonwater 5y ago
    But Earth-based stuff isn't designed to last too long precisely because it can be maintained. Why wouldn't the ISS be somewhat different in this regard? I don't really see how this analogy is supposed to work.
  - rapnie 5y ago
    Let's say they decide to put it out of commission. How do they get rid of it? Regular orbit needs to be actively maintained, I think. Will they let it enter the atmosphere, whole or in chunks?
    - yardie 5y ago
      Most components of ISS were brought up by shuttle. It will need to be disassembled and brought down by the next generation of shuttle. I don't think it was designed for controlled re-entry. And dismantling it for re-entry is going to get super complicated and dangerous.
      - noja 5y ago
        The shuttle has heat shields which disintegrate on re-entry. Could the ISS be kept at that altitude to safely destroy it?
dddw 5y ago
Ah man, and this just after the other incident where the Russian module boosters went off and the Russian agency wasn't able to communicate with it being out of reach.
jmcmahon443 5y ago
Y'all smokin' weed again up there?
- nix23 5y ago
  Or a russian submariner is on board ;)
Finnucane 5y ago
Did I leave the iron on?
Steltek 5y ago
> The crew activated air filters and returned to their "night rest" once the air quality was back to normal, the agency stated. Really? Shouldn't they have investigated a wee bit more or did they also wave a magazine around at the --ceiling-- bulkhead? This reads like "normal people stuff" and not what I'd expect from people on a space station.
- tailspin2019 5y ago
  I thought the same. What an odd statement from a space agency. Even the article title downplays it. Why is the headline "smoke alarms go off" as opposed to "something was on fire" (aka visible smoke and burning smell). Smoke alarms going off can be a false detection. The news here is something was literally burning on the ISS and the secondary news is that according to the relevant space agency they didn't even find out what it was before going back to sleep.
  - blamazon 5y ago
    Alternate framing: benevolent space agency prioritizes flight crew rest while ground crew monitors and prepares a response to an ongoing mild emergency situation.
    - eli 5y ago
      Still sounds weird tbh
      - jhugo 5y ago
        The whole station is monitored from the ground, and the smoke alarms were presumably still functional. If the crew couldn't do anything useful in the moment, and the danger is over (and any return of the danger will be immediately noticed) then not interrupting their sleep any further seems like a rational choice. You can imagine that while the crew are sleeping, people on the ground are giving some consideration to where the smoke could have come from, so that by the time the crew wake, there is a plan for further investigation in place. Why make the crew stay awake while you come up with that plan?
conistonwater 5y ago
When there was a fire on Mir, Nasa said "Small Fire Extinguished on Mir" [1], and the actual thing was pretty severe: "The flames were large enough to span the breadth of Kvant-1, cutting off access to one of two Soyuz escape capsules", "Thick smoke rapidly enveloped the entire station, forcing all crewmembers to don oxygen masks." [2] Given all the recent trouble Roscosmos had with the new module in addition to the engine malfunction, I wonder how bad the situation really is. What's the worst that can happen here? [1] https://www.nasa.gov/centers/johnson/news/releases/1996_1998/97-30.html https://www.nasa.gov/centers/johnson/news/releases/1996_1998... [2] https://sma.nasa.gov/docs/default-source/safety-messages/safetymessage-2011-11-07-spacestationmironboardfire-vits.pdf?sfvrsn=a3ae1ef8_4 https://sma.nasa.gov/docs/default-source/safety-messages/saf...
- rasz 5y ago
  >What's the worst that can happen here? an "accident" removing permanent manned US space presence, maybe on October 7 for some unknown and purely coincidental reason.
  - mkwarman 5y ago
    Why October 7? A quick google search shows it's Revolution day in Russia, but I'm afraid I don't understand the relation.
    - lbotos 5y ago
      ^ If you are talking about https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/October_Revolution https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/October_Revolution that's Nov 7th / October 25 on the calendar system Russia was using at the time.
      - mkwarman 5y ago
        Ah interesting, so no relation there either. Thank you for the info!
    - rasz 5y ago
jack_riminton 5y ago
More accurate headline: Russian batteries start to smoke and melt plastic onboard the ISS
- tailspin2019 5y ago
  Do you have a source for this?
SiempreViernes 5y ago
William Harwood (@cbs_spacenews) ISS: Station crew looked behind panels near the smoke alarm that tripped, but did not see anything obvious; filters were activated to remove the odor and after discussions, the crew was told to go back to bed https://twitter.com/cbs_spacenews/status/1435928837347500035?s=21 https://twitter.com/cbs_spacenews/status/1435928837347500035...
Giorgi 5y ago
Russians need to cope with that fact that they are not in a position to have space program.

43 points by underscore_ku 5y ago

gizmondo 5y ago

ISS appears to be falling apart. Is it a change in publicity or real?

plopz 5y ago
Its actually falling apart, roscosmos has been saying their segments have outlived the expected lifetime of the station for a few years now.
yardie 5y ago
ISS has been running continuously for 22 years. Most earth based housing doesn't even have that level of uptime. If it were a cruise or cargo ship it would have been in and out of drydock 5-7 times. It's extremely difficult to have complex systems run continuously for decades. Unfortunately after we built ISS I thought there would be ISS2 or ISS upgrades planned. And I haven't seen anything like that.
- gruez 5y ago
  >Most earth based housing doesn't even have that level of uptime are we including mud huts and/or poorly built apartments in chinese ghost cities here? If we only considered american timber framed houses, I don't see why 22+ years of "uptime" would be hard to achieve.
  - eric__cartman 5y ago
    Maybe OP meant 22 years of zero maintenance. Even though many houses are way older than 22 years (including the apartment I'm living in now) going more than two decades without something breaking is quite challenging. Granted a lot of the time it's a simple electrical issue, plumbing that needs to be repaired or paint that's peeling off the walls. Stuff that isn't vital for the structural integrity of the building. Because if it is tearing down buildings after 22 years and rebuilding new housing then yes, that is quite ridiculous and unachievable for most people.
    - gruez 5y ago
      >Maybe OP meant 22 years of zero maintenance Has the ISS not received any maintenance in the last 22 years either?
    - tgv 5y ago
      ISS hasn't been 22 years without maintenance.
  - yardie 5y ago
    You are not continuously occupying your home for 22+ years. It might feel like it during the pandemic but you regularly leave. You probably take 2-4 weeks off per year without worrying about if it's going to still be there. If your bathroom stops working you can go to the gym. If the power goes out it's simply inconvenient, but not life threatening. I'll reiterate; the ISS has been continuously inhabited for 20 years, non-stop, no weekends in the countryside.
- conistonwater 5y ago
  But Earth-based stuff isn't designed to last too long precisely because it can be maintained. Why wouldn't the ISS be somewhat different in this regard? I don't really see how this analogy is supposed to work.
- rapnie 5y ago
  Let's say they decide to put it out of commission. How do they get rid of it? Regular orbit needs to be actively maintained, I think. Will they let it enter the atmosphere, whole or in chunks?
  - yardie 5y ago
    Most components of ISS were brought up by shuttle. It will need to be disassembled and brought down by the next generation of shuttle. I don't think it was designed for controlled re-entry. And dismantling it for re-entry is going to get super complicated and dangerous.
    - noja 5y ago
      The shuttle has heat shields which disintegrate on re-entry. Could the ISS be kept at that altitude to safely destroy it?

dddw 5y ago

Ah man, and this just after the other incident where the Russian module boosters went off and the Russian agency wasn't able to communicate with it being out of reach.

jmcmahon443 5y ago

Y'all smokin' weed again up there?

nix23 5y ago
Or a russian submariner is on board ;)

Finnucane 5y ago

Did I leave the iron on?

Steltek 5y ago

> The crew activated air filters and returned to their "night rest" once the air quality was back to normal, the agency stated. Really? Shouldn't they have investigated a wee bit more or did they also wave a magazine around at the --ceiling-- bulkhead? This reads like "normal people stuff" and not what I'd expect from people on a space station.

tailspin2019 5y ago
I thought the same. What an odd statement from a space agency. Even the article title downplays it. Why is the headline "smoke alarms go off" as opposed to "something was on fire" (aka visible smoke and burning smell). Smoke alarms going off can be a false detection. The news here is something was literally burning on the ISS and the secondary news is that according to the relevant space agency they didn't even find out what it was before going back to sleep.
- blamazon 5y ago
  Alternate framing: benevolent space agency prioritizes flight crew rest while ground crew monitors and prepares a response to an ongoing mild emergency situation.
  - eli 5y ago
    Still sounds weird tbh
    - jhugo 5y ago
      The whole station is monitored from the ground, and the smoke alarms were presumably still functional. If the crew couldn't do anything useful in the moment, and the danger is over (and any return of the danger will be immediately noticed) then not interrupting their sleep any further seems like a rational choice. You can imagine that while the crew are sleeping, people on the ground are giving some consideration to where the smoke could have come from, so that by the time the crew wake, there is a plan for further investigation in place. Why make the crew stay awake while you come up with that plan?

conistonwater 5y ago

When there was a fire on Mir, Nasa said "Small Fire Extinguished on Mir" [1], and the actual thing was pretty severe: "The flames were large enough to span the breadth of Kvant-1, cutting off access to one of two Soyuz escape capsules", "Thick smoke rapidly enveloped the entire station, forcing all crewmembers to don oxygen masks." [2] Given all the recent trouble Roscosmos had with the new module in addition to the engine malfunction, I wonder how bad the situation really is. What's the worst that can happen here? [1] https://www.nasa.gov/centers/johnson/news/releases/1996_1998/97-30.html https://www.nasa.gov/centers/johnson/news/releases/1996_1998... [2] https://sma.nasa.gov/docs/default-source/safety-messages/safetymessage-2011-11-07-spacestationmironboardfire-vits.pdf?sfvrsn=a3ae1ef8_4 https://sma.nasa.gov/docs/default-source/safety-messages/saf...

rasz 5y ago
>What's the worst that can happen here? an "accident" removing permanent manned US space presence, maybe on October 7 for some unknown and purely coincidental reason.
- mkwarman 5y ago
  Why October 7? A quick google search shows it's Revolution day in Russia, but I'm afraid I don't understand the relation.
  - lbotos 5y ago
    ^ If you are talking about https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/October_Revolution https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/October_Revolution that's Nov 7th / October 25 on the calendar system Russia was using at the time.
    - mkwarman 5y ago
      Ah interesting, so no relation there either. Thank you for the info!
  - rasz 5y ago

jack_riminton 5y ago

More accurate headline: Russian batteries start to smoke and melt plastic onboard the ISS

tailspin2019 5y ago
Do you have a source for this?

SiempreViernes 5y ago

William Harwood (@cbs_spacenews) ISS: Station crew looked behind panels near the smoke alarm that tripped, but did not see anything obvious; filters were activated to remove the odor and after discussions, the crew was told to go back to bed https://twitter.com/cbs_spacenews/status/1435928837347500035?s=21 https://twitter.com/cbs_spacenews/status/1435928837347500035...

Giorgi 5y ago

Russians need to cope with that fact that they are not in a position to have space program.