Smoke Detector Triggers Alarm in Russian Segment of the International Space Station

An alarm went off on the International Space Station earlier this morning as cosmonauts woke as much as the odor of smoke.

There’s by no means a boring second on the ISS nowadays, whether or not it’s mysterious air leaks, problematic small cracks, busted bogs and oxygen provide mills, or a brand new module stubbornly desirous to depart shortly after docking, inflicting the ISS to unexpectedly rotate by as a lot as 540 levels.

The newest incident occurred at 4:55 a.m. Moscow time, when a smoke detector was triggered within the Zvezda service module of the Russian phase, Roscosmos defined in a statement. The Zvezda module, along with internet hosting a portion of the station’s life assist techniques, supplies dwelling quarters for 2 crew members. BBC reports that the odor of smoke drifted so far as the U.S. phase.

Roscosmos says the looks of smoke coincided with the autonomous recharging of the station’s batteries. An air filter was switched on to get rid of the “smoke pollution” and refresh the area station’s synthetic ambiance. Once the smoke was cleared, the ISS-65 crew continued their evening in “rest mode,” the company stated. The fundamental operational management group for the Russian phase stated all techniques are working usually, and the air aboard the station “corresponds to the standard indicators.”

Roscosmos has not instantly responded to my request for extra data, akin to the reason for the smoke, the situation of the battery charger, and subsequent potential steps.

Life on the station seems to have returned to regular. Oleg Novitsky and Pyotr Dubrov proceeded with their scheduled six-hour spacewalk at the moment, because the cosmonauts proceed to combine the newly arrived Nauka module.

In an electronic mail, Jonathan McDowell, a researcher at Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, stated incidents akin to these are “very serious,” as they might result in smoke inhalation or, worse, a full-blown fireplace (there’s a lot of flammable materials up there). He characterised the Russian response thusly: “So, ‘there was a burning smell, but we turned up the fans and the smell has gone away now, although we still don’t know what it was.’” This response, stated McDowell, “doesn’t fill me with intense confidence.”

McDowell jogged my memory of a historic incident aboard the Mir area station. A fireplace broke out on February 24, 1997, and it took the crew of six almost quarter-hour to place out the “searing flame,” as NASA described it, which they did with fireplace extinguishers. NASA astronaut Jerry Linenger was aboard Mir on the time, and he described the incident in his memoir Off the Planet (by way of Universe Today):

As the hearth spewed with indignant depth, sparks – resembling a complete field of sparklers ignited concurrently – prolonged a foot or so past the flame’s furthest edge. Beyond the sparks, I noticed what gave the impression to be melting wax splattering on the bulkhead reverse the blaze. But it was not melting max. It was molten steel. The fireplace was so scorching that it was melting steel.

So yeah, fires aboard area stations are very dangerous. In that case, the hearth began in Mir’s strong gasoline oxygen generator, and the flames had been put out earlier than they might injury the station or injure the crew. The incident led to new insurance policies and coaching measures to forestall a recurrence.

So whereas Roscosmos is fast to downplay at the moment’s incident, what occurred is clearly no joke. Hopefully extra particulars will emerge within the coming days to verify all the pieces is really okay and that the crew is secure.

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