A reserve ship is being prepared for Russian cosmonauts: instructions for evacuation were sent

The MK correspondent spoke with industry experts about what members of the Russian ISS crew can now prepare for in connection with the emergency that occurred on December 15 on the Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft docked to the station, what role did winter solstice, and how real the version of a micrometeorite can be.

Recall that the emergency on the only Soyuz spacecraft docked to the space station now occurred on December 15 early in the morning. The alarm of one of the diagnostic systems (it testified to a pressure drop in the external circuit of the radiator, which ensures the temperature regime of the ship) went off before the next spacewalk of Sergei Prokopiev and Dmitry Petelin. Their extravehicular activity (EVA) was urgently canceled – a fountain of technical fluid beat in space.

Later, information began to come in about a significant, up to 40-50 degrees, increase in temperature in the ship. MK reportedwhere exactly it was so hot, and how the cosmonauts cooled the interior of the Soyuz with the help of air conditioners.

solar orbit

Space industry experts told MK that an additional “bonus” that exacerbated the temperature increase due to a radiator failure was the Sun that did not set beyond the horizon for several days. The fact is that just in mid-December, the ISS enters the so-called solar orbit (this is due to the winter solstice). As cosmonaut Oleg Artemiev explained, this happens when the sun, as viewed from the ISS, does not go beyond the Earth’s horizon, and the station does not hide in its shadow. This phenomenon can be compared with the Earth’s polar day. This is convenient for the crew during a spacewalk, because every 40 minutes they do not have to switch to performing the most difficult work with the help of flashlights. However, no one expected that during this astronomical phenomenon, a pipeline rupture would occur. Now the station has already “left” the solar orbit, which means that the “day” and “night” on it will replace each other, as usual, every 40 minutes, and the damaged Soyuz spacecraft will be more in the shade and cool naturally.

geminids

Another phenomenon superimposed on the situation with the hole, which requires separate consideration. This is the Geminid meteor shower, which peaked just in mid-December. As we remember, Sergey Krikalev, executive director for manned programs of Roscosmos, named a collision with a micrometeorite as a possible cause of damage to the radiator. However, here there is a break in the logical chain: if the management of the state corporation, in principle, considers the meteor shower potentially dangerous, why did they plan the EVA on the day when the peak number of meteors flying to the Earth reached a maximum – up to 150 pieces per hour? Moreover, this astronomical “show” in press releases that were published on the Roscosmos website in announcements EVA was even mentioned to draw additional attention to the exit of astronauts.

“There is reason to believe that a collision of a ship with a meteorite or even with space debris of man-made origin is very unlikely,” said the expert, the interlocutor of MK. – This is clearly evidenced by the fact that over the past 20 years, NASA astronauts have gone into outer space in mid-December 5-6 times, and our astronauts – 2-3 times. And how many streams fly to the Earth at other times of the year! Do you think someone cancels the EVA because of them? Theoretically, the hit of a “foreign body” not into the station, but into a ship docked to it, and even more accurately – into a fairly thin radiator pipe, having a width of up to 10 centimeters, could happen, but in one case in a million. In any case, besides the version with the micrometeorite, the special commission is now considering many other possible causes of radiator damage, including poor-quality manufacturing of the circuit on Earth.

Emergency leaving the station

The fact that the astronauts might have to urgently leave the station was said on the day of the accident. Literally the next day, recommendations for emergency evacuation on the Soyuz MS-22 were sent from the MCC to the ISS.

As we were explained, according to the instructions that the cosmonauts have, they really must urgently leave the station in connection with an emergency on the rescue ship (as the Soyuz docked to the ISS are called). For example, in 2018, when the Soyuz MS-09 was depressurized due to a hole drilled from the inside, the astronauts were also supposed to urgently close the hatches and leave the station on the same ship until the pressure in it dropped critically. However, the subsequent balanced analysis of the situation led to the fact that the hole was sealed, and the air leak stopped. The ship landed at the scheduled time. In this case, it is unlikely that it will be possible to glue the radiator from the outside – although it is not closed with screen-vacuum insulation, it will be very difficult to weld a hole in open space, since the main pipeline is under high pressure. Even if we assume that it was somehow “glued together”, the question arises – how to pump coolant into it? On Earth, this is usually done using a high-precision gas station. There is no such thing in space. There is only one way out – to cool the internal circuit by other methods, for example, using existing air conditioners.

“The ship is completely pressurized, and it can land on its own. It is possible that the landing time can be adjusted so that its descent, in order to avoid overheating, at the scheduled time (this is March 2023) takes place in the shadow sector, the experts told us.

The next ship, Soyuz MS-23, is due to launch in March. It is already at the Baikonur Cosmodrome. If the special commission, which starts work on December 19, decides, it can be prepared at least by February, because it must go through all the necessary tests.

Meanwhile, the official Roscosmos recalled that now the flight of the Russian segment of the station continues as usual, the cosmonauts are working according to the schedule, nothing threatens their life and health. The fact that the situation is not too critical is evidenced by the fact (it was reported by the press service) that on Sunday evening the entire international crew of the ISS watched the final of the World Cup.