Author Topic: Possible ammonia leak inside the ISS - January 14th 2015 (Read 70939 times)

corgius · « **on:** 01/14/2015 09:06 am »

it seems that an ammonia leak is currently on-going inside the ISS, reported by Italian News website AstronautiNEWS

http://www.astronautinews.it/2015/01/14/aggiornamento-emergenza-corso-sulla-iss/

NSF Article:
http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2015/01/iss-ammonia-leak-alarm-false-indication/

Pete Harding technical overview article:
http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2015/01/iss-returning-normal-false-ammonia-leak-alert/

mtakala24 · « **Reply #1 on:** 01/14/2015 09:28 am »

Gathered from MCC-M discussion with the crew just moments ago:

Drastic DPDT spike. (not sure if atmosphere or the pressure in a loop.)
edit: The above Italian site says that it was the atmosphere pressure.

No ammonia detected.

A loop has been depressed, the DPDT has stopped. (not sure which loop they were talking about.)
The above italian side reports Node 2 loop B, whatever that its. Don't have access to documentation right now.

No-go for science as of now. ISS survival is not an issue.

It sounded like the crew was in the Russian Segment and the hatch to USOS was closed.

mtakala24 · « **Reply #2 on:** 01/14/2015 09:52 am »

MCC-H is starting to shut down stuff as per Los-of-Cooling checklists.

mtakala24 · « **Reply #3 on:** 01/14/2015 09:54 am »

Not sure what to make of this. Node 2 LTL is negative.

marcozambi · « **Reply #4 on:** 01/14/2015 09:58 am »

mtakala24, being one of the contributors to that live updated article (in Italian), I can confirm that the capcom on the loop confirmed at about 10.55 CET (04.55 EST) there was a leak in the Node 2 LTL from loop B, so loop B is now shut down, the depress of loop B is n process, and the DPDT was brought back to zero.
The source is of course the Live ISS stream available on Ustream, that by the way continues to transmit live audio.

mtakala24 · « **Reply #5 on:** 01/14/2015 10:00 am »

Now there is a fire alarm. MCC-H cannot tell if false or not.

..and thanks marcozambi, I'm listening to that too.

TSomers · « **Reply #6 on:** 01/14/2015 10:01 am »

Here's the ISS Live view of the Loop A and Loop B cooling data. I'm not sure what the nominal data is, but Loop B looks mostly shutdown.

Additionally, there was just a fire alarm onboard in the docking compartment.

mtakala24 · « **Reply #7 on:** 01/14/2015 10:06 am »

I missed that display, thanks for posting it.

No fire nor smoke, CSA readings are basicly zero as reported by crew.

mtakala24 · « **Reply #8 on:** 01/14/2015 10:16 am »

The crew and MCC-H are going through the fire procedures now.

mtakala24 · « **Reply #9 on:** 01/14/2015 10:21 am »

Another alarm. Houston is taking a look.

mtakala24 · « **Reply #10 on:** 01/14/2015 10:30 am »

FGB smoke detectors tripped - the same ones from the day before yesterday.

mtakala24 · « **Reply #11 on:** 01/14/2015 10:40 am »

The ammonia reference from my first post in this thread could have been in reference to the ammonia in Russian Segment.

Did anyone catch if they actually smelled or detected ammonia in the USOS before evacuating?

mtakala24 · « **Reply #12 on:** 01/14/2015 10:53 am »

Another alarm on the loop. CSA-CP readings to be taken in MRM-2.

Orbiter · « **Reply #13 on:** 01/14/2015 10:56 am »

No visual indications of anything off-nominal in MRM-2.

mtakala24 · « **Reply #14 on:** 01/14/2015 10:57 am »

Another alarm again. Repeat of the above MRM-2 smoke and fire alarms.

Orbiter · « **Reply #15 on:** 01/14/2015 10:58 am »

Another smoke/fire alarm in MRM-2, same signature and sensor. False alarm.

woods170 · « **Reply #16 on:** 01/14/2015 11:02 am »

This situation now being reported thru Roscosmos website: http://www.federalspace.ru/21240/

mtakala24 · « **Reply #17 on:** 01/14/2015 11:04 am »

Big picture:

Gracefull powerdown in progress

Loop B has not been vented yet. (Capcom said about it being something that cannot be taken back. Loss of NH3 and N2 are obvious.)

Not convinced it is an ammonia leak.

Possibly thermal effects, sensor problems. Smart people looking at data.

DPDT stable, only very small increases seen from time to time right now. A days worth of increase at this rate can be tolerated before any over-pressure.

Targeteer · « **Reply #18 on:** 01/14/2015 11:06 am »

Per CAPCOM, Houston is not convinced there was a leak and they are having experts come in to pour over the data

Chris Bergin · « **Reply #19 on:** 01/14/2015 11:12 am »

Good work on here everyone! I'm at work, but you all seem to have it covered nicely.