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Space NASA

New Sensor Finds Leaks in Spacecraft 115

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the comes-complete-with-finger-to-plug-the-hole dept.
Roland Piquepaille writes "With financial support from NASA, Iowa State University (ISU) engineers have developed a sensor to quickly find leaks in a spacecraft. This sensor locates an air leak by listening to the noise generated by the air rushing out of the leak and includes an array of 64 elements that detects vibrations as they radiate along the spacecraft. Because astronauts cannot hear the noise caused by escaping air, NASA needed to design a system to help them. As one ISU researcher said, 'NASA wants to be able to find these leaks. Fixing them is easy. But the question is, "Where is the leak?"' Now that this sensor has successfully been tested on the ground, NASA is evaluating a proposal to build a prototype of the leak detection system for future missions.
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New Sensor Finds Leaks in Spacecraft More

New Sensor Finds Leaks in Spacecraft

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  • Another application. (Score:5, Funny)

    by GreggBz ( 777373 ) on Wednesday October 03, 2007 @03:04PM (#20842517) Homepage
    It's also good for "who farted."

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by mikael ( 484 )
      It's also good for "who farted."

      We just place lots of carbon dioxide and methane detector strips on all the walls and chairs.
    • In SPACE, no one can year you STREAM...

  • If it find leaks... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Dr. Spork ( 142693 ) on Wednesday October 03, 2007 @03:05PM (#20842537)
    First customer: Steve Jobs
  • National Aeronautics and Space Administration - Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Program

    PROPOSAL NUMBER: 06 T5.02-9832 [nasa.gov]

    Have a try :)

    CC.
  • I bet NASA is wishing they had this ten years ago!
  • The summary states that the detection system detects the sound made by air escaping. This is not true. The sound of the air escaping is OUTSIDE the spaceship (as said in the article) and therefore cannot be detected within the craft. The detection system is simply the array of vibration sensors.
    • Sorry, but wrong, the ship will be vibrating at the source of the leak. Therefore if you have several sensors around you should be able to triangulate the position pretty accurately.
      • They must be able to tell the difference between the vibrations from escaping air vs those caused by the multitudes of systems running like A/C, ventilation, etc. Maybe they turn them off briefly to remove background noise and vibrations before searching for leaks.
        • Yes, their ultrasonic. And stay at the same frequency, unless the hole changes in size. The same technology is used to detect holes in environmental suites, and electric lines leaking.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Dunbal ( 464142 )
        Sorry, but wrong, the ship will be vibrating at the source of the leak.

              But not for very long, depending on the size of the leak.

              "Hey look we have a leak in section 2, the sensors have - oh, no, it's fine now..." :)

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by rts008 ( 812749 )
      And your ears are not vibration senors? Hmmm...methinks you may need some remedial education on this one.

      Sound is nothing more complicated than the brain's reacting to specific nerve impulses from the auditory nerves due to vibrations affecting cilia (all 'tuned' to respond to specific frequencies of vibration-like piano strings) that are attached to these aforementioned nerves.
      Basically, sound is all in your head...outside of your head it's all just vibrations of varying frequencies.
  • What in the world do they do for human air leaks- I mean passing putrid gas on the spaceship?

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Zymergy ( 803632 ) *
      One Word: Beano http://www.beanogas.com/ [beanogas.com] ...Being sealed inside a space capsule would give a whole new take on the ol' "Dutch Oven" treatment wouldn't it?
    • NASA is working on spaceship-safe matches for that.
    • Long before there were manned spacecraft there were submarines and diving suits. Both of these were in use just after the turn of the last century (early 1900s) Answer is Either "open curcuit" new air pushes old air overboard or "closed" where air is recirculated through dehumidifiers and carbon filters and many times also through hydroxide "scrubbers" to remove carbon dioxide. So by 1960 these was half a century of technology for them to draw on.

  • Auto Patch (Score:3, Interesting)

    by mdarksbane ( 587589 ) on Wednesday October 03, 2007 @03:14PM (#20842697)
    I'm curious what size of leak they're targetting here.

    I've heard an interesting suggestion for an automatic leak plugging system - floating, easily popped bags of quick drying sealent. Any leak will create air currents that will suck the bags into the holes, where they pop and seal the whole.

    This of course ignores all sorts of potential problems (holes in areas obscured by cables/ductwork, for one thing) but I thought it was neat anyway :)

    • Re: (Score:1, Redundant)

      by GIL_Dude ( 850471 )
      Yep, Robert Heinlein had those in his novels many a year ago. Seems like they could work. If they don't work due to the weight of the sealant then they could at least be used without sealant and they would still show where the leak is.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by rah1420 ( 234198 )
        Yep, Robert Heinlein had those sealant bags] in his novels many a year ago.

        ISTR he also write a (short) story where someone sat on a leak to plug it. Froze his butt cheek right up, it did, till the rescue team arrived.
        • obSimpsons:

          Lisa: I think it's ironic that dad saved the day while a slimmer man would have fallen to his doom.
          Bart: And I think it's ironic that for once dad's butt prevented the release of toxic gas-

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by andphi ( 899406 )
          You remember correctly. I can't recall the name of the story just now, but I've read it in the last month or so. I think it was in "Green Hills of Earth"
          • It was called, what else, "Gentlemen, Be Seated!".

            Chris Mattern
          • Nope :)

            I've read a few of Heinlein's short stories recently, so after a quick memory refreshment I can say that the "Green Hills of Earth" is not the story in question (it's about Rhysling, the Blind Singer of the Spaceways).

            "Gentlemen, Be Seated!" is the one where they plug a leak in the moon tunnel by sitting on it:

            I tore of my own trousers, had a panicky time before I found the exact spot in the dark, and set down on it, with my right buttock pressed firmly against the opening. It grabbed me like a sucti

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by andphi ( 899406 )
              Ah. I see the confusion. The story containing the butt-seal is in the book entitled "Green Hills of Earth" but not in the story which gives the book its name. We're both right.

        • Re: (Score:1)

          by Cragen ( 697038 )
          Is that the story where the spaceship used ping-ping balls to locate leaks?
    • Judging from the article it looks like they are after pinhole sized holes from micrometeorites. I assume a hole that size would create a slow leak that wouldn't be obvious. Big holes would be easy to detect because the astronaut's eyes would pop out "Total Recall" style.

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by imsabbel ( 611519 )
      think of small leaks..
      They can be viciously hard to dedect, hat lose tons of air over a larger timeframe (and air isnt really replaceable up there).

      I work with vaccum chambers, where the same problem can happen (just inverted). And even having a rather good access to all parts, it can be terrible hard to find a leak without disassembling parts of the chamber. (Thats the reason you use helium and a mass spectrometer for leaktesting. Just hose down the thing and check where helium seeps through...)
    • Neat idea, except for the fact that it will also plug up useful things like air filters, vents, and lungs. It seems like getting rid of all air on the spacecraft would be just as effective.
    • In the movie "Mission to Mars", Gary Sinise's character McConnell used a squirt-bag of Dr. Pepper to locate the leak in their aircraft. Just having something airborne to show the 'funnel effect' of the sucking would be invaluable. Plus, it doesn't really matter how big the hole is. The soda's going to vent itself, regardless of the size of the breach.
    • The suction force (for want of a more technical description) of a small air leak is not going to be enough to suck much material around.

      Unless of course the whole atmosphere was filled with tiny flakes of stuff, in which case people would be inhaling them and gooping up their airways.

  • Not exactly new technology (Score:3, Informative)

    by Teun ( 17872 ) on Wednesday October 03, 2007 @03:15PM (#20842727)
    This type of survey has been used in the oil industry since the 1980's...

    "noise log" leak detection [google.com]

    But I have to admit this is 3D against 2D.

  • KISS (Score:5, Funny)

    by Tank ( 9385 ) on Wednesday October 03, 2007 @03:18PM (#20842769) Homepage
    I love tech as much as the next guy, but why not keep it simple... Submerge the craft in water, and look for bubbles. :D

    • Re: (Score:1, Redundant)

      by PitaBred ( 632671 )
      As big as the shuttle is? It's built for negative pressure, not positive pressure. I mean, the orbiter is 56' tall on the runway. Remove some height for the tail and the landing gear, that's still a good 20' deep to submerge the entire thing, which makes the outside pressure somewhere around 1.6 atmospheres. But I'm guessing you meant this as a joke. I just wanted to throw some random facts out to make myself look relevant, even though I'm not ;)
      • I'm probably gonna butcher the quote, but in futurama, when they goto the ancient lost city of Atlanta: Fry: How many atmospheres can the ship take? Prof: Well, given that it's a space ship, some where between 0 and 1.

    • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

      by jabber ( 13196 )
      Sure, but the cost of shipping all that water into orbit is prohibitive, and who has time to go around melting comets?
      • not to mention the fun and games it would take to keep the side in shadow from freezing solid, and the side in the sun from boiling
    • One can only hope they are not triangulating the screams of the astronauts.

    • Re: (Score:2, Funny)

      by Wite_Noiz ( 887188 )
      Professor Farnsworth: Dear Lord, that's over 150 atmospheres of pressure.
      Fry: How many atmospheres can this ship withstand?
      Professor Farnsworth: Well it's a spaceship, so I'd say anywhere between zero and one.
    • That's just crazy.

      You don't need to submerge the craft, which would require too much water, and a place to put it in. (The ocean won't work. [space.com]) All you gotta do is put the water IN the spacecraft and watch for the water to spray OUT! The ship contains the water, and you only need enough to fill up the ship.

      You can even use dowsing rods to find where it's coming out.

  • Hippy Solution: (Score:3, Funny)

    by Penguinshit ( 591885 ) on Wednesday October 03, 2007 @03:30PM (#20842921) Homepage Journal

    Incense.

    Just follow the smoke... Good for karma and centering your Qi, too!

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Carbon016 ( 1129067 )
      "Our oxygen levels are way too low, what's going on, do we have a leak?" "Chill out guys, I'm just burning some incense, my spirit guide said we'll make it to the moon without oxygen anyway using the power of our minds." Sorry, I just thought the irony of burning oxygen to find an air leak intensely ironic.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by v1 ( 525388 )
      Although technically that works very well, there are two basic problems with using smoke

      1) since this is a sealed environment, there are compact air filtration, circulation, and other "life support" systems moving the air around. I'd bet if you lit a stick in the ISS it would immediately fall into an "air highway" in the chamber and beeline for the nearest air filter/recirculation intake.

      2) somewhat related to (1), they have to filter their air because there's no fresh outside the window to air the place o

  • Been around since 1955 or so (Score:3, Informative)

    by Ancient_Hacker ( 751168 ) on Wednesday October 03, 2007 @03:30PM (#20842925)
    Ultrasonic leak detectors have been around since at least as far back as 1955.

    The telephone company (way back when there was just ONE big one, ATT), used to have like lots of copper wires running from pole to pole (way back when there were wires, and poles, and above-ground stringing).

    In the wetter climates the wires were covered in a lead casing (back when lead wasn't so despised). The lead "tubes" were pressurized to keep the moisture out. If the lead sheathing got a leak, a guy (back when telephone company people in the field were guys) would walk down the street holding up an ultrasonic microphone.

    A little box on his belt would map the ultrasonic frequencies down to the audible range and feed it to his headphones (back when headphones were big clunky black bakelite things).

    • This isn't a ultrasonic microphone. It locates leaks by structure vibrations, NOT air vibrations. Kinda different.
  • Oh, come on, you don't get an opportunity like this every day!
  • When asked for comment, Buzz Aldrin said "I don't find leaks, I only take them"
  • I thought you were supposed to put some in space ship and check for a leak if they congregate in one place?

  • In Space No One Can Hear You Scream (Score:4, Funny)

    by Doc Ruby ( 173196 ) on Wednesday October 03, 2007 @03:37PM (#20843011) Homepage Journal
    They can't mount this sensor outside the craft pointing in, because the intervening empty space carries no sound energy.

    But if they mount it internally, it could find not only leaks, but also target where that hideous alien creature is hiding after it's eaten the ship's cat.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by v1 ( 525388 )
      on the surface that appears sensible, but remember that ANY atmosphere can conduct sound energy. Even a very small leak. A little whisp of gas flowing out of a pinprick of a hole/crack technically conveys sound energy, as the motion of the gas flowing away from the hole. Detecting that is no different than detecting any other sound, it's just that you lose 50% of the sound energy. (because there is only expansion, no contraction) Also considering the very low pressure atmosphere outside such a leak, (th

      • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

        by Doc Ruby ( 173196 )
        But only if there's enough gas to form a medium between the leak and the detector. Unless the entire surface is coated with the detector, then small leaks (with serious consequences over time) can't be detected. And coating with a sensor could use much cheaper and simpler tech.
        • AIU, gas isn't the medium used. This system measures vibrations (sound waves) traveling through the skin of the spaceship.
          • What's "AIU"?

            We're talking about a scenario where the sensor is mounted outside, not integrated with, the ship. In that case, the only possible medium is the escaping gas, which isn't enough to conduct sound everywhere outside the ship. The inside mounting was treated completely in an earlier message in this thread.

  • Don't Tell (Score:1, Troll)

    by Herkum01 ( 592704 )
    Don't Tell GWB, he will use it on our federal agencies instead!
  • I find leaks in my bicycle tubes with soap and water. Why don't they spray soap all over it and look for the bubbles?
    • How do you propose spraying soap on the *outside* of a freaking space ship?
      • 1. It's so low tech it's funny. Come on.
        2. NASA has shown repeatedly that they can invent anything they want to. Have you checked out that insulating ceramic stuff? It's still amazing 30 years later.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by flyingfsck ( 986395 )
      Because in vacuum water boils and bubbles all on its own.
  • In "Mission to Mars" they used Dr Pepper. It has an added advantage in that you can drink it if there are no leaks. This would help keep the astronauts awake, so they are more aware of air leaks. Solves multiple problems.
  • Gil "the ARM" Hamilton doesn't have this problem.

  • A few clarifications (Score:5, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 03, 2007 @04:53PM (#20843983)
    As one of the principal developers of this technique, I can clarify a few points:

    1. 99% of the leak noise escapes into the vacuum on the downstream side of the leak. Thus conventional industrial leak detection devices are much less effective for leaks into vacuum than for leaks into air.

    2. The real challenge is the extraction of the leak noise from other noise sources. We do this by recording cross-correlations of noise measured at different locations. Electronic (preamp) noise does not correlate and is rejected. Thus we can get far higher sensitivity than a single sensor.

    3. This device uses a piezo sensor with an array of multiplexed electrodes to sense the direction of sound propagation under the sensor. A 3D time-x-y Fourier transform maps the measured correlations from the time/space domain to the frequency/wavevector domain. The wavevector points precisely away from the leak, allowing us to find the leak through triangulation from two or more sensor arrays.

    4. For all you Linux fans, this sensor was developed entirely using open-source software. We used Linux with gEDA schematic capture and pcb.sourceforge.net for board layout. Lab measurements are done using the soon-to-be-published open-source Dataguzzler software on Linux x64.

    (Contact me for more information about Dataguzzler)

    5. One paper on this sensor, published in the journal Ultrasonics, vol 45 (2006) pp 121-126,
    can be found at http://thermal.cnde.iastate.edu/~sdh4/home/leakarray.pdf [iastate.edu]

              Stephen D. Holland
              Assistant Professor, Iowa State University

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by ColaMan ( 37550 )
      Bitchin.

      That's all I have to say.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by rvandam ( 893100 )
      I have to say I'm impressed, and that's just with the parts I actually understood. But several people have brought up the Hollywood version of leak detection by introducing something (balloons, Dr. Pepper, smoke, etc) into the air that would then be pulled via air currents to the hole. In one particularly dramatic movie, the liquid then forms a giant icy soda spike sticking out of the spacecraft so that it could be identify from outside and patched.

      Since it was a movie I almost have to assume it wouldn't

  • how it works (Score:1, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward
    I saw a fairly lengthy presentation on this a while back so I have a rough understanding on how it works. It's an array of accelerometers which measures the vibration of the material it's mounted on and then uses software to "triangluate" (wrong word, right idea) the direction and distance from the sensor is to where the "sound" is coming from. There isn't an exact point, more like a probability distribution with hot-spots.

  • can it detect leaks when orbiting Uranus? (Score:1, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    otherwise there might be too much methane in the ship

  • In Space.. (Score:3, Funny)

    by monopole ( 44023 ) on Wednesday October 03, 2007 @05:55PM (#20844673)
    Nobody can hear you leak! You need machines for that.
  • I am a student at ISU and nearly all the research for this type of equipment takes place in Ames Lab (http://www.ameslab.gov)
    I personally know two professors who work there and they are both top-notch.

    -A side note: Ames, IA was the largest producer of Uranium 235 in the world between 1940 and 1950.

    • As a resident of Ames, Iowa, and not a student, I can also say, without a doubt, that ISU is also the leading supplier of bullshit since 1980. :D
  • Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • This type of tech has been in use for twenty years (or more) to find leaks in coolant lines and radiators used in air conditioning systems installed in everything from homes, businesses, and vehicles.

    http://buy1.snapon.com/catalog/item.asp?store=snapon-store&item_ID=68182&group_ID=3201 [snapon.com]

    With that being said, even with decades of improvements - it's still a tedious task that can be time consuming and prone to false positives. This new implementation with multiple sensors will give the system a much hig
  • This has got to be some very sturdy equipment. Ever watched a cockpit video of liftoff? Those are some heavy and prolonged vibrations. Think the vibrational sensors will still work to detect such subtle vibrations later after that much shaking for such a long time?

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