ISS Fender Bender 248
wjsteele writes "Seems that the Space Station has had a minor fender bender. Sounds kind of scary... being in a space craft and hearing metal crunching (like an aluminum can.) Apparently some 'Minor' space debris struck the station around 2:30am this morning, while the astronauts were eating their wheaties." Update: 11/27 16:31 GMT by M : Looks like an experiment may be to blame.
Space Junk (Score:5, Informative)
It's no wonder the ISS was hit. All they need is the space equivalent of the "adopt a highway" program, and a lot of plastic bags.
30,000 km/s can do a lot of damage (Score:5, Informative)
So anyone who still think the movie Armageddon is based on scientific facts. (Remember the body being flung againt the windscreen and it didn't even have a scratch?) Think again...
A simplier explanation (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Anyone know... (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Sound in space? (Score:4, Informative)
That's true. The sound didn't travel through space, the sound travelled through the body of the space station and the air contained within it, not the vacuum of space.
Re:Sound in space? (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Minor? (Score:5, Informative)
Actually, yes there is.
The ISS has a permanently docked Soyuz capsule for evacuation purposes.
Some details, here [google.com], also indicate that the incident you mention actually took place in 1997.
NASA also have info on the escape capsule [harcourtschool.com].
Re:Would that not be UCT (Score:4, Informative)
Re:2:30 AM, eh? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Minor? (Score:5, Informative)
For example, the Apollo lunar module had a skin about the thickness of a pop can. Apparently the hatch would bulge outward when the module was pressurized -- I wish I could find a reference for that. There is also a story of a technician on the ground who clicked his pen against a high-pressue LM fuel tank during testing -- the click opened a pin-prick leak that amputated the technician's finger (that story is in "Apollo" by Murray and Cox).
The ISS was specifically designed to withstand impacts from space debris, so I would expect its hull to be a little thicker.
Re:2:30 AM, eh? (Score:2, Informative)
Re:A "brush"? (Score:4, Informative)
I assume you mean "paint flecks", and the answer is that they may cause minor damage. The space shuttle Challenger took a paint fleck hit [raytheon.com] on one of its windows, which left a crater about a quarter inch in diameter. Apparently such minor pitting on the thermal tiles is considered routine in the shuttle program.
Even at orbital speeds, paint flecks don't have enough momentum to worry about. The big worry is the ball-bearing-sized debris, which is essentially impossible to detect, and which could deliver the impact energy of a hand grenade explosion.
Re:MicroMetoriets (Score:4, Informative)
It wasn't hit by anything (Score:4, Informative)
The Space Station was NOT Struck (Score:2, Informative)
Actually, it WAS a false alarm. (Score:3, Informative)
source of noise found (Score:4, Informative)
GMT explained (Score:2, Informative)
Greenwich Mean Time is called Mean because it is the time averaged over a year, if you get the idea. It isn't the real time on account of the 3 degrees or so of wobble of the earth on its axis. The block where I live is pretty much bang on geographical North - South, so shadows around midday can be observed over time. The midday alignment can vary by as much as 12 minutes from 'clock' time, in advance or retarded depending on the season.
And now the sums: 12 mins = (hrs in day x mins in hr) x (3 degrees/360 degrees), or (24*60)*(3/360).
Someone correct me if this is bollocks.
Re:30,000 km/s can do a lot of damage (Score:1, Informative)
Re:Would that not be UCT (Score:3, Informative)