A BAG OF TEA TO HELP

THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION

A year later, however, the leak grew, forcing NASA to intervene. But before you could plug it, you had to know where it came from. For this, the astronauts had an ingenious idea involving a tea bag, says Numerama.

A small crack spotted

The investigations quickly led the astronauts to the Russian module of the ISS, the most dilapidated. Then, to precisely locate the leak, the crew members extracted tea leaves from a sachet and released them into the module. The latter, then suspended in microgravity, were observed using a device.

"We took several photos and videos of the direction of flight of the tea bag (...) and it shows precisely the direction in which the air is sucked in by the air leak", explains to the Russian space agency the cosmonaut Anatoly Ivanishin. The crew was thus able to see the tea leaves approaching a small crack in the hull of the module.

The leak repaired temporarily

The leak has been sealed with duct tape but this will not be enough in the long run. "The air pressure continues to drop, even if the rates of this drop have reduced," says Anatoly Ivanishin, which can be explained by the insufficiency of the adhesive tape, or by the existence of another leak. Additional equipment will be delivered during the next manned mission.

The International Space Station, some modules of which date from 1998, is experiencing several dilapidated problems, Numerama recalls. During the night of October 20-21, the Elektron-VM oxygen support system broke down in the Russian module. At the same time, the ISS was experiencing a malfunction in the food and toilet heating system. But this time too, the astronauts managed to fix everything. .

The ISS is one of the rare examples of cooperation between Moscow and Washington. Sixteen countries are participating in the 1998 orbiting station, outpost and orbital laboratory that cost a total of $ 100 billion, largely funded by Russia and the United States.

It is expected to be dismantled within the next decade, due to structural wear and tear..