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In recent days, the news of the leak in one of the cooling systems of the Soyuz MS-22currently docked at International Space Stationhas been around the world. This is a serious problem even if the astronauts aboard the ISS they are not in immediate danger to life and no emergency procedures are in place. The most important point that remains to be clarified is whether the Russian spacecraft will actually be able to return to earth Frank Rubio (NASA), Sergey Prokopyev (Roscosmos) and Dmitri Petelin (Roscosmos).
Over the past few days, a series of checks have been carried out with the European robotic arm (ERA) and with the Canadarm2. However, none of these gave a positive result to correctly determine a future strategy and therefore NASA and Roscosmos analyzes are continuing to define how to act in the coming weeks. An official joint press conference was also held in the past few hours to talk about the problem. Here is what emerged.
Updates on the International Space Station and Soyuz MS-22
During the conference Sergey Krikalev (director of human flight of Roscosmos) said that the hole is about 0.8 mm wide damaging a part of the cooling system of the Soyuz MS-22. The Russian executive specified that currently it has not yet been chosen whether it will be possible to use this spacecraft or an unmanned one (MS-23) will be sent in the coming months. Further tests will be needed and will be carried out in the coming weeks. However, it would be a question of waiting until at least mid-February 2023 to launch MS-23 towards the International Space Station.
Be NASA that Roscosmos have ruled out that the problem at the Soyuz MS-22 is due to a micrometeoroid related to the Geminids. However, it is not excluded that it could be another micrometeoritespace debris, or even a manufacturing defect. Yuri Borisov (director general of Roscosmos) he added “the damage turned out to be an external circuit, most likely a micrometeorite or space debris, but so far this is the preliminary conclusion of our panel”.
The good news is that the coolant that escaped from the system did not damage the solar panels or the windows ISS (and even the US extravehicular activity, albeit late, was carried out correctly).
As reported by RIA Novosti an in-orbit repair, even through extravehicular activity, was excluded. Always according to a source of Roscosmos about 44 liters of coolant kept at 3 atm would have leaked. The main problem would not be repairing the hole but rather re-inserting the coolant. Currently the temperature is kept under control (at 27°C) by switching off the air conditioning system of the spacecraft and instead using that of the International Space Station. Obviously when the capsule comes off the ISS for the return this will no longer be possible leading to a potential rise in temperatures.
Borisov’s statement regarding the permanence of Russia/Roscosmos on board the vessel also fits into all of this ISS. According to the general director “Today we have official permission [ndr. dal governo russo] to work on the ISS up to and including the age of 24. And we have already asked for the continuation up to the age of 28. Of course, we will maintain our presence as long as possible, but nobody knows how the station will behave in the future. The situation with Soyuz MS-22 has shown that emergency situations can happen, no one is immune from these things.”. This means that Russia could remain at least until 2028 with the end of the operational life of the ISS scheduled for 2030. In the meantime, the first module of ROSS, the Russian space station, could be launched by the end of 2025.
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