The temperature inside the Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft now attached to the ISS, on which a refrigerant leak occurred in the thermal control system as a result of a micrometeoroid hit last December, reached 60–70 °C. This was announced by the head of the flight of the Russian segment of the station Vladimir Solovyov.
Image source: youtube.com/@RoscosmosMedia
“The rise in temperature, when we calculated it, turned out to be catastrophic, we very quickly approached temperatures of 60–70 degrees there,” Mr. Solovyov said. After being hit by a micrometeoroid 1–1.5 mm in size, which was flying at a speed of 7.5 km/s, the pressure in the cooling system began to drop sharply and dropped to zero within 4–5 minutes. This happened at an extremely inopportune moment – the astronauts were preparing for a spacewalk, they were already wearing spacesuits, and even the compartment was depressurized.
If the incident had happened at the time of the autonomous flight of the ship, then, according to the protocol, it would have been promptly recalled to Earth. The station managed to cope with the problem, providing sufficient security. However, the use of the Soyuz MS-22 to return astronauts to Earth was out of the question: the temperature established on the ship is not suitable for a person, and the equipment stops working properly. “At temperatures somewhere around 40 or 50 degrees, microcircuits are already starting to fly out,” Vladimir Solovyov explained.
Currently, specialists are monitoring the state of the ship by using the ISS cooling system – now you need to make sure that the Soyuz MS-22 does not pose a threat to the station. Particular attention is paid to the descent control system – it contains hydrogen peroxide, which is extremely sensitive to high temperatures. It has to be “cooled in a certain way”: when it is possible to reach a temperature of 2 ° C, the probability of problems is small, but under the sun’s rays it grows to 6.5 ° C, and this is already “uncomfortable”.
Recall that in the near future, the Soyuz MS-23 spacecraft will be launched to the ISS in an unmanned mode, which should replace the damaged apparatus to return the crew of the latter to Earth. In turn, the broken Soyuz MS-22 will be sent to Earth unmanned. While it is kept on the ISS in case of emergency, in case of urgent need, astronauts will still be able to return to Earth in it.
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