The future of the ISS in question: Cracks, leaks, debris, ageing equipment

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Cosmonauts on the International Space Station were forced to briefly lock down a segment of the orbiting lab after finding an “unusual odour” emanating from a Russian cargo spacecraft that had docked earlier that day. The worst scenarios, including the leakage of a toxic substance, have been dismissed but NASA still doesn’t know what caused the incident.  Visit our website: http://www.france24.com  Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FRANCE24.English  Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/France24_en

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00:00Time for our science segment next. Now, cosmonauts on the International Space Station were forced to

00:05briefly lock down a segment of the orbiting lab after finding an unusual odor. Now, it was coming

00:12from a Russian cargo spacecraft that had docked earlier that day. NASA still doesn't know what

00:17caused the smell. Hopefully, we can find out more about this, but with Julia Seager. Julia,

00:21walk us through what exactly happened here. So on November 21st, the Russian cargo ship Progress

00:26took off from the Russian launch base Baikonur, which is located in Siberia. Aboard, there was

00:33more propellant, extra food, extra supplies and equipment for the International Space Station.

00:38And two days later, it was able to successfully dock to the ISS. Now, what happened is that when

00:43the astronauts actually opened the cargo hatch, they all indeed smelled that odor that they all

00:49describe as being resembling that of an aerosol. And they also witnessed small little droplets.

00:55And so what they did is that immediately they decided to close off the airlock, temporarily

01:00close off all of that section of the ISS, and they activated the air scrubbing equipment. Now,

01:05that was a couple of days ago. What we now know is that NASA actually took this very seriously and

01:09was actually very concerned because what they thought is, is that it could have been a substance

01:13called hydrazine. It smells like ammonia. It's used as a propellant in Progress. And it's actually

01:19very toxic for humans. So very quickly, it can create catastrophic damage to the respiratory

01:24and nervous system, but also it can trigger liver and kidney failures. And so fortunately,

01:31this scenario was quickly ruled out. NASA, the teams that are in Houston, were able to remotely

01:37check the air quality inside of the ISS, and they figured out that everything was actually normal.

01:41Today, they still don't know what it is. It could have been one of two things. They say it could

01:46have been a leak of the coolage system, but it could have also been what we call a phenomenon

01:50called outgassing. That's when you take a terrestrial object and you bring it to Earth,

01:54the gas that's inside of that material can actually leak out. So it's one of two things,

02:00but at the same time, they really still don't know what it is and where it came from.

02:03But it's not toxic.

02:05But it's not toxic because the astronauts are doing well.

02:08Okay, let's talk about something else because the ISS is faced with another challenge. This

02:13is related to the wear and tear of the Russian section.

02:17Exactly. So for years, we've been spotting more and more cracks and more and more leaks within

02:22the entire International Space Station. But more specifically, there's a lot of concern

02:27with the Russian section. So as you know, the ISS is an assemblage of different modules that

02:32were put together from different countries. And that actually, that assemblage started in 1998.

02:37So it dates back to 1998. Now, every module, as I said, comes from different countries. So now

02:44you have different sections. So as you can see here, you have the American section, the Russian

02:48section, the Japanese section. And the Russian section that you see here is actually in brown.

02:55And there's a lot of worrying about this section because 90% of the in-flight system of that

03:01Russian section are considered to be obsolete or outdated. And there's a leak actually,

03:05a micro leak that was identified in this VESDA module here. And that's why regularly,

03:11the Russian section is actually completely sealed off from the rest of the International Station.

03:16Actually, Roscosmos and NASA don't agree on how important and how grave the situation is compared

03:23about that micro leak. So as you know, the International Space Station is to be deorbited

03:29by 2031. But that situation, this tear and this wear and tear, it could actually precipitate

03:35the departure of the Russians from the International Space Station. They said they

03:38could have even leave as of 2025, just in a couple of months. And they've actually started

03:43creating their very own space station. It's a very sad situation because as you know,

03:48the International Space Station is really the embodiment of international cooperation in space.

03:53What we could see in a couple of years is essentially space stations of different countries,

03:59but no international space station anymore. Now, another problem, Julia, is threatening

04:04the International Space Station. That's astronauts on board had to make an avoidance

04:08manoeuvre for the second time in a week. That's right. For the second time in a week,

04:12they were able to dodge space debris. Now, ironically, they were able to do so thanks to

04:17a Russian cargo docked on the ISS. They were able to restart that Russian cargo and to shift the

04:23station 500 metres and avoid a fragment of satellite. And this type of incident usually

04:29happens once every two years. This time it was twice in a week. And that just shows that it's

04:35proof that the lower Earth orbit is now very much cluttered with satellites by space debris.

04:42There are about 10,200 active satellites over the Earth. More than 6,000 actually are of the

04:49Starlink constellation. And all of that, because it's not always deorbited, it creates a lot of

04:53debris. And more and more, the International Space Station has to make these avoidance

04:59manoeuvres to avoid colliding and having an important collision. So, as you can see,

05:05the International Space Station, there's more and more worrying about its future because of

05:11the space debris, but also because of the wear and tear of the equipment.

05:15Julia, thank you very much for that. Julia, thank you for that.

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