Astronauts on the Worldwide House Station (ISS) recently encountered a doubtlessly hazardous scenario throughout a spacewalk once they got here throughout a blob of ammonia. This incident occurred after the detection of an exterior radiator leak earlier this month. Whereas it might sound like a scene from a sci-fi film, the blob of ammonia posed actual dangers.
Ammonia is a poisonous gasoline/liquid recognized for its corrosive properties, able to inflicting speedy hurt to human tissues upon contact, significantly in excessive concentrations. Publicity to ammonia can result in eye, nostril, throat, and respiratory tract irritation, and in extreme instances, it can lead to blindness, lung injury, and even demise. Whereas astronauts on spacewalks are protected by their fits, the presence of ammonia contained in the area station could possibly be harmful to these working inside.
Throughout the spacewalk, astronauts Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub have been tasked with documenting and isolating a coolant leak from an exterior radiator that regulates the temperature in Russia’s Nauka laboratory module on the ISS.
The astronauts reconfigured valves to cease the ammonia provide to the exterior radiator, and it was throughout this course of that they noticed the ammonia blob. It’s believed that the blob fashioned from residual ammonia disturbed through the valve reconfiguration.
The astronauts, geared up with cleansing instruments, took precautions to stop any poisonous materials from getting into the area station. Though one among Kononenko’s tethers grew to become contaminated attributable to his proximity to the blob, it was safely left exterior the ISS on the finish of the spacewalk.
The information collected by the astronauts might be examined by Russian engineers on the bottom to find out the reason for the radiator leak and develop a plan for its restore. Regardless of the doubtless harmful encounter, the astronauts reentered the ISS with none contamination, and nobody was harmed through the incident.
Filed in Space.
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