More cracks found in Russian annex of the International Space Station Cracks characterized as superficial by Russia have been discovered in the nation's portion of the International Space Station. There's no word yet if these fissures in the Zarya module have caused, or will cause, any air leaks, though there is a concern they could widen. “Several such places with non-perforating cracks were …
I used metal putty to disable locks when I was a peace protester. Put on gloves, strip a bit of multi-strand copper wire and insert into lock, warm up the putty and smear into lock. Not the worst sabotage but it'll require a locksmith to replace it, or boltcutters if it's a padlock.
Whenever I cut a padlock I'd always leave a new boltcutter resistant padlock. I doubt any of the replacements were ever used as I could have copied the keys, it was more a legal defence against criminal damage charges if I was caught.
I do risky things but I would not put metal putty on a hot water boiler. I'm glad it has worked for you but that smacks of catastrophic failure. I've used it to fix a hole in a car and to beef up a processor heat sink, but there's something about a jet of boiling water that I can't put my finger on.
"I do risky things but I would not put metal putty on a hot water boiler. I'm glad it has worked for you but that smacks of catastrophic failure."
He said tank, not boiler, so I'd assume from that it's an unpressurised, insulated storage vessel, not a pressurised boiler.
"but there's something about a jet of boiling water that I can't put my finger on."
I see what you did there
"He said tank, not boiler, so I'd assume from that it's an unpressurised, insulated storage vessel, not a pressurised boiler."
Yes exactly that. Copper tank, and unpressurised (vented to the attic). Managed to get a pinprick hole while trying to undo the massive thread on the element and folded the thin tank skin slightly. It was a very fine jet of quite hot water. Took a while to notice the wet patch downstairs and realise there was a hole. Was off to a Java training course (those were the days) and didn't want to leave the family without hot water. Water is a demon.
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No.
Isn't it great that collaboration in space works, or at least worked for a while?
And that is without mentioning that no single nation section would be worth maintaining, if it was habitable at all, defeating the whole purpose of the thing completely...
Good grief, couldn't we do with less stupid nationalistic willy waving?
Good grief, couldn't we do with less stupid nationalistic willy waving?
No. The waving has been going on from very beginning. The space agencies use it to get more money. Even "joint" operations are about money such as the US paying Russia for too long to launch our guys to the ISS.
At some point there will be the very hard decisions - whether to continue operating the ISS and replace some of the oldest modules, or dismantle it and build an entirely new station - perhaps re-using parts, perhaps not.
Or give up entirely, but I don't consider that to be an option.
I would assume that it's better to replace modules.
Trouble is of course that replacing the oldest modules means going via a state where the ISS is in two or more rather large and massive pieces.
Doing that without hitting anything or overstressing any joints may not be safely feasible - How big a lump can Canadarm2 safely move?
There are some great videos of the oscillations the station can get into, especially following hard manoeuvres. Given that Zarya sits right at the core of the station, the stress and strain of stuff wobbling round the outside is likely to be at a maximum on the Russian core nodes.
A ring design ala 2001 a space odyssey isn't just for show, it would spread loads out much more evenly.
When one considers how long Spacelab, Salyut, and Mir lasted; ISS is doing very well. I'm quite sure there will be analysis out there of the fatigue accumulated by the station; with risk assessments to accompany them.
Geopolitik is such that our Russian "friends" are being ever more hostile, and that alone probably puts more of a blocker on ISS lifetime than the mechanical aspects. One does not really want to speculate on why the open hostility has increased so much when it is so obviously counter-productive to everyone.
"One does not really want to speculate on why the open hostility has increased..."
One part standard Orwellian stuff (an external enemy forces everyone to pull together and put up with the privations of a badly run state) and one part Putin's ego and his fear of a reckoning should anyone else take over.
the hardware components on the aged Zvezda section [...] will be past their manufacturers' warranty period
Zvezda was originally going to be the core of the follow up to MIR, and was built by the Soviet Union in the 1980's, so yes, I think making a warranty claim might be tricky ;)
Imagine how much it would cost to post it back?
the hardware components on the aged Zvezda section [...] will be past their manufacturers' warranty period
All hardware in space has a limited life due to stresses and radiation from the sun and elsewhere. I suspect that this will be a long hard problem to solve especiailly if we're going to look at traveling great distances and taking decades to get there.
I suspect the answer will be a bit of materials science and thicker materials. The ISS was built when getting anything big and heavy into space was really, really expensive so those walls are pretty thin skin. With newer, cheaper and big launch vehicles, and a needed for those thicker (heavier!) walls, it should be less of an issue to put something up there with a known and much longer lifespan. The data from the long term exposure of the existing ISS materials will, of course, be very useful. I'd expect that when the last astronaut leaves, it won't just be a case of turning out the lights, but bringing back samples cut from the outside of the station before de-orbiting the remains.
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