Russia says space station leak could be deliberate sabotage

originally posted by: roadgravel
a reply to: 38181

So the Russians should be using Angie's List.

I would think someone working on a space craft would be aware and careful, but ya never know.

Outsourced the work to some auto mechanic maybe.

They are PHD scientists trained to do scientific work, I wouldn’t trust them working on my lawnmower.

a reply to: BigDave-AR

Yea, I've pretty much dismissed someone doing it on the ship. You'd see the metal shavings floating around or in the filter. I don't know if they all share tools, or if each countries astronauts have their own. If they have their own, I imagine the alloy and paint would differ on the Russian portion of the station. The drill bit would still have some of that on the edges I would have to think.

What is used on the ISS to drill holes?

Reason I'm asking is this: on earth, you brace with your body to drill, as the rotational energy would have you going around and around without gravity. I would think trying to drill in space would be time consuming and the person doing it would have been left pretty tired while they kept simply trying to not drift away from their work. Unless there is a proper tool to be used.

Said tool would have metal bits/ recent wear on it.

a reply to: 38181

Lol, I assume that was sarcasm.

One of my relatives worked on the Star Wars program as a reverse engineer. He could take anything apart and put it back together.

a reply to: wylekat

There are plenty of places to strap yourself to the vessel, so I still think you could get the pressure to be able to drill, I just Don't see why anyone would do it when they know they could get caught fairly easily.

originally posted by: 14377
a reply to: CriticalStinker
Any chance you could blow that up and take a good look at it for me ?

I've had a look myself and it doesn't look like text or numbers to my untrained eye, it looks just like the mark I'd expect to see from a drill bit skipping over painted metal,

a reply to: seattlerat

How long did they have before they switched out astronauts? Seems as if someone wanted to come home early? Or was losing their mind and wanted to see what would happen?

I'm guessing it had to be some kind of assembly accident. A saboteur would most likely drill straight in to the panel for speed and to avoid any skipping or risk a broken drill. Drilling at an angle in metal is tricky enough here on earth.

a reply to: MerkabaTribeEntity

Yes and in weightlessness this would have been harder hence the long perforations from where someone tried to start the hole. I see this close to a daily basis just not so long and is textbook dril markings from starting a hole and the drill sliding. Again weightlessness should make this happen easier.

originally posted by: MerkabaTribeEntity

originally posted by: 14377
a reply to: CriticalStinker
Any chance you could blow that up and take a good look at it for me ?

I've had a look myself and it doesn't look like text or numbers to my untrained eye, it looks just like the mark I'd expect to see from a drill bit skipping over painted metal,

Definently no markings anywhere there’s a lack of paint is suspect on the inside of the bend you can see two more drill marks that started biting but looks like the person decided they didn’t like where the holes were going.

It must have been some crazy never-Trumper

a reply to: CriticalStinker

If this happened on earth and simply plugged...wouldn't the scraping attempts on the metal cause an inspector concern to check that area closer before launch?

It does look like a drill hole! I can only imagine the paranoia and suspicion for those on board right now. Obviously, it is wise to outwardly and socially blame earth defect just to maintain social normality...but everyone of the crew must be keeping a more watchful eye on everyone else!

I do not see how it would pass inspection if it was done on the ground.

Is this really the thickness of part of the space station?

In the pic there is one big hole then there is the smaller drill hole with bit marks around it.

I could imagine that this area may be recorded on camera 24 hrs day.

Also there is no evidence of any type material around the hole that would indicate some type of plug or patch at some point.
There is no doubt this is a drill mark.

Find out who was using a drill lately.

This reminds me of the show salvation...

originally posted by: 14377
The second picture also shows the metal bent inward.

I don't know where seattlerat got the images from (I can't see them on the linked articles), but the second image is from a completely different case.

After looking for it I found that it's an old photo, from 1984, and from the SolarMax mission.

Source

PS: I found the electron microscope look of the photo suspicious.

a reply to: MerkabaTribeEntity

The more I look at it the less I think it is a drill skip.

The hole looks to be about a quarter inch. So I went down to my shop and skipped a 1/4" bit on a piece of aluminum. The gaps are far different and mine all torqued to the right instead of in a straight line.

I still think it might numbers or possibly the Cyrillic alphabet .



Not 100% right or wrong I just wanted to add some input .

Do they actually have a drill and bit on board?

originally posted by: wylekat
What is used on the ISS to drill holes?

Reason I'm asking is this: on earth, you brace with your body to drill, as the rotational energy would have you going around and around without gravity. I would think trying to drill in space would be time consuming and the person doing it would have been left pretty tired while they kept simply trying to not drift away from their work. Unless there is a proper tool to be used.

Said tool would have metal bits/ recent wear on it.

Ummm...I'm sure you would use something similar to a mag drill...(magnetic drill)…

While this is aluminum...there are any number of ways to fix a drill in position in a low to zero grav environment so that the torque is cancelled out by the material drilled and whatever method of torque cancellation is used...







YouSir

originally posted by: 14377
a reply to: MerkabaTribeEntity

The more I look at it the less I think it is a drill skip.

The hole looks to be about a quarter inch. So I went down to my shop and skipped a 1/4" bit on a piece of aluminum. The gaps are far different and mine all torqued to the right instead of in a straight line.

I still think it might numbers or possibly the Cyrillic alphabet .

Not 100% right or wrong I just wanted to add some input .

Actually I see more of the same pattern as yours just closer together... Maybe skips from a drill press during construction back here on earth.

a reply to: YouSir

While this is aluminum

I doubt that.

Looks to be metal or possibly stainless.

Of coarse i could be wrong but judging from the drill marks it is not aluminum.

originally posted by: 14377
I still think it might numbers or possibly the Cyrillic alphabet .

Doesn't look like numbers or Cyrillic characters (I know them), it does look like the paint was scrapped by some tool.

Regarding the markings made on your test, wouldn't the way the drill skips across the metal change with the shape of the drill? If it would then a different drill could have made those marks.