Alle 13.07 ora Italiana, il comandante Chris Hadfield ha pubblicato un tweet dalla ISS che annunciava una perdita di Ammoniaca pressurizzata all’interno della stazione spaziale.
Dopo 4 ore possiamo tirare un sospiro di sollievo perché l’equipaggio ha seguito le procedure di salvataggio come da manuale, spostandosi nella sezione russa e sigillando l’area americana, apparentemente coinvolta nella perdita.
Di seguito la twitt-cronaca dell’accaduto:
Emergency on the Space Station. High pressure ammonia may be leaking inside. Crew closed hatches, safe for now in Russian segment. Analyzing
— Chris Hadfield (@Cmdr_Hadfield) January 14, 2015
Ammonia is used for cooling through pipes & heat exchangers on the outside of Station. If it breaks through inside it is 1 of the big 3.
— Chris Hadfield (@Cmdr_Hadfield) January 14, 2015
We train for it & the crew and MCC have responded well. Crew is safe. Looking closely now to be sure what happened, & thus what to do next.
— Chris Hadfield (@Cmdr_Hadfield) January 14, 2015
https://twitter.com/Cmdr_Hadfield/status/555339709866868736
Ammonia is an excellent coolant, but is poisonous to breathe. 1st indication of a leak-through is internal pressure rise. NASA's checking.
— Chris Hadfield (@Cmdr_Hadfield) January 14, 2015
Will know soon if it's a real leak or sensor malfunction. Everyone's treating it seriously, doing it right, by the book.
— Chris Hadfield (@Cmdr_Hadfield) January 14, 2015
A quick solution is to vent the external ammonia out into space. There are 2 systems so that would lose half cooling, big effect inside.
— Chris Hadfield (@Cmdr_Hadfield) January 14, 2015
Would also then need to fix any leak and ship up a new ammonia supply. Hopefully none of that will be needed here.
— Chris Hadfield (@Cmdr_Hadfield) January 14, 2015
The crew has several ammonia sensors onboard, they used them in the Russian section while wearing masks, no ammonia seen, took masks off.
— Chris Hadfield (@Cmdr_Hadfield) January 14, 2015
I lost count of the number of times that we practiced this exact procedure in the simulators in Houston. Serious risk requires serious prep.
— Chris Hadfield (@Cmdr_Hadfield) January 14, 2015
Space situation for now: 4 men & 2 women in 1/4 the space sharing Russian food & 1 toilet for at least a day. Houston's making a safe plan.
— Chris Hadfield (@Cmdr_Hadfield) January 14, 2015
Ed ecco anche il tweet della nostra Samantha Cristoforetti:
(IT) Grazie a tutti, stiamo tutti bene qui nel segmento russo e siamo al sicuro. Per aggiornamenti seguite @NASA e @Space_Station
— Samantha Cristoforetti (@AstroSamantha) January 14, 2015
Dalla Nasa dicono che sia stato un malfunzionamento dei sensori o di uno dei computer di bordo e non di una vera perdita.
Dice @NASA che sembra sempre più probabile che si tratti di un difetto del sensore o dei computer, non di una vera perdita
— Paolo Attivissimo @ildisinformatico@mastodon.uno (@disinformatico) January 14, 2015
- via twitter
