Is the International Space Station leak getting worse?
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Is the International Space Station leak getting worse?

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The leak is in the Russian part of the craft.

Lauren Wellbank - Author
From the International Space Station
Source: NASA/Unsplash

Astronauts on board International Space Station (ISS) receives conflicting reports of a worsening leak in part of the outer space laboratory.

The leak, which experts have been aware of for years, has apparently become unmanageable in the latter part of 2024, prompting concern for the crew and their families back on Earth.

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Not everyone agrees that the cracks causing the air to leak out of part of the ISS are anything to worry about. interstellar relations on trial as Russian officials and NASA engineers try to agree on whether the space station leak is getting worse and what they should do about it.

Keep reading to learn more about the tense situation.

The International Space Station orbits the Earth
Source: iStock

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The leak aboard the International Space Station keeps getting worse.

To hear NASA officials explain it, the ISS is at risk of a “catastrophic failure” due to a leak in the Russian part of the craft. Chairman of the ISS Advisory Committee Bob Cabana addressed his concerns when speaking to Space news If the meeting on 13 November 2024 between himself and NASA’s committee.

According to Cabana, a leak in Zvezda’s service module vestibule has worsened since its discovery in 2019.

The leak requires station crews to seal off Prk, the name of the vestibule where the leak was discovered, when they don’t need to use it to access the cargo section located near that part of the ISS.

“Although the teams continue to investigate the causal factors of the crack initiation and growth, the US and Russian technical teams do not have a common understanding of what the likely root cause is or the severity of the consequences of these leaks,” explained Cabana.

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According to him, Russian engineers are convinced that the leak was caused by cracks that were the result of micro-vibrations that caused something called “high cyclic fatigue”.

NASA, on the other hand, thinks the problem is much more serious and involves multiple factors, including residual stress and environmental exposure.

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Although they cannot agree on the cause of the leaks, both agencies seem to agree that the ISS is losing air at a rate of 1.7 kilograms per day, the highest amount they have detected since the discovery of the leak.

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What would happen if the International Space Station explodes?

Air leaks aside, the fate of the ISS is complicated. The 900,000 pound laboratory presents a unique problem for the countries that share responsibility for the ship, especially when it comes time to decommission it and take it back into Earth’s orbit so it can be discarded, acc Space.

Because of the nature of the vesselsimply returning to Earth is not really an option. Instead, the ISS will likely need to slow the rate at which it falls toward Earth as much as possible so NASA can try to control the trajectory of the 400-ton station. NASA will then have to work carefully to ensure that the larger pieces of the ship are not immediately burned up on re-entry do not hit any populated areas.

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In addition, they must pay attention to where some of the more toxic elements of the ship lands to prevent them from causing potential harm to anyone people, animals or bodies of water when they hit the ground.

If it explodes while it’s still in orbit, that might change things a bit. Although smaller pieces are likely to burn up more quickly when re-entering Earth’s atmosphere, the debris field can be much largerand therefore more difficult for NASA and other officials to predict or control.

It could spell disaster if the debris field falls on populated communities that may not have a lot of warning, information or where to go, as parts of the ISS started raining down from the sky.

Fortunately, neither NASA nor Russian officials seem to think an explosion is likely as a result of the leak.

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