Smoke alarms sound at International Space Station
Source: ABC News
Smoke alarms went off at the 'Russian segment' of the International Space Station in the early hours of Thursday, and the crew reported noticing smoke and the smell of burnt plastic.
Russia's space agency Roscosmos said the incident took place in the Russian-built Zvezda module and occurred as the station's batteries were being recharged. According to Roscosmos, the crew activated air filters and returned to their night rest" once the air quality was back to normal. The crew will proceed with a space walk Thursday as planned, the agency noted.
The space station is currently operated by NASA astronauts Mark Vande Hei, Shane Kimbrough and Megan McArthur; Oleg Novitsky and Pyotr Dubrov of Russias Roscosmos; Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Akihiko Hoshide, and European Space Agency astronaut Thomas Pesquet.
Novitsky and Dubrov are scheduled to carry out a six-hour-long space walk on Thursday to continue integrating the Russian-built Nauka science lab that docked with the space station in July. Shortly after docking, the lab briefly knocked the orbital outpost out of position by accidentally firing its engines an incident Russian space officials blamed on a software failure.
Read more: https://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory/fire-alarms-sound-international-space-station-79912023
I did not see anywhere online the cause of the smoke and smell of burnt plastic.
And hasn't that 'Russian segment' had other problems recently?
They turned on the air filters, and went back to sleep?
So if my smoke detector goes off, just air out the room and go back to bed?
ItsjustMe
(11,170 posts)Spot The Station will give you a list of upcoming space station sighting opportunities for your location.
https://spotthestation.nasa.gov/sightings/index.cfm
Click on the three bars and select your Country, State, and City for ISS sightings In your area.
Bernardo de La Paz
(48,790 posts)Investigate the cause and determine that it is not a current threat or likely to soon be a threat again (like turning off that charging system).
Do you suppose that there are no pre-determined procedures for such events?
Do you suppose that NASA has not thought this through?
Do you think this is the first time alarms have gone off there?
Do you imagine that nobody created manuals and checklists for what to do in such situations?
Your own excerpt you put in your Original Post explains the cause you ask about. Second paragraph: "batteries were being recharged".
EndlessWire
(6,377 posts)to ask those questions. And yeah, there have been times when engineers and scientists have made tremendous booboos. Like calculating math in different systems. Stuff like that.
I would think that it would be worrisome to at least one of the astronaut/cosmonaut/whatevernauts that the battery recharging system had to be deactivated. Turning off the charging system does NOT end the problem. How easy that would be...and, how are they now going to recharge batteries?
The CAUSE was not simply turning on the recharging system. If you think it is, I would not want you sharing my space station with me. There is some other problem. I hope they find it.
Bernardo de La Paz
(48,790 posts)They would NOT just turn them off and forget about it. It wasn't worth destroying the sleep period to deal with it in detail and repair it just then.
If in the middle of the night your cell phone on charger starts emitting toxic fumes and sets off the smoke detector you disconnect all the phone parts from the electricity. You don't jump up and run off to the Apple store at 2 AM to get a new charger and phone battery. You go back to sleep and wait until the morning. Same with the astronauts: back to sleep and repair it in the "morning".
Duh.
The OP is the one suggesting that all they were going to do was "simply turning off the recharging system" as you put it. That was unreasonable.
Take your slam to the OP. I don't think you want to share space stations with the one who didn't think their OP through. I think you'd rather share it with somebody who uses established procedures and follows the advice and help of the ground crew.
Sheesh. Get real.
EndlessWire
(6,377 posts)You're the obnoxious little pigeon who thinks all solutions come out of the manual and likes to pick at OPs concerns that they value a broken sleep period over preventing fire in a location that no one can rescue them from. If you smelled burning plastic in a closed system, and did nothing but turn the off switch and yawn, there would be something wrong with you. You were harsh and unreasonable to OP who had valid questions. You offered nothing but attitude. Get off my space station and take your manual with you.
Bernardo de La Paz
(48,790 posts)I wrote:
I did not write
as you insinuate and mischaracterize and completely misread
I even wrote "NOT" in capital letters to assist you.
I also wrote:
Investigate the cause and determine that it is not a current threat or likely to soon be a threat again (like turning off that charging system).
Because I recommended that the crews consult manuals you lie and say I "think all solutions come out of the manual". You seem to have some difficulty with the words "investigate" and "determine" because you skip over them and lie about what I wrote.
Just stop with the slams and lies. You think I am stupid and NASA is stupid because we both believe in pre-planning with manuals and procedures and ground crew support. You wrote: " take your manual with you".
Bernardo de La Paz
(48,790 posts)twodogsbarking
(9,315 posts)Maybe they need replaced.