Damage to Russian craft means 3 astronauts on the ISS have no way home till March

News & Politics
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A group of astronauts are trapped in orbit around the Earth after their space ship suffers catastrophic damage.

A rescue ship is available to bring them home, but there is a catch. It has only four seats ― and there are seven of them.

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It sounds like the nail-biting plot of a Hollywood film to rival the plight of Bruce Willis in Armageddon or George Clooney and Sandra Bullock in Gravity.

In fact, this is the real-life dilemma that could face astronauts on the International Space Station after a Russian Soyuz capsule was so badly damaged it may be beyond repair.

Russian cosmonauts Dmitry Petelin and Sergey Prokopyev and Nasa astronaut Frank Rubio arrived at the ISS in September on a Soyuz ship that was scheduled to take them home in March. Two weeks ago while docked at the ISS, the Soyuz sprang a huge coolant leak that some experts believe means it can no longer fly safely.

The only other spacecraft at the ISS is an American SpaceX Dragon, which carried a group of four astronauts, two from Nasa, a Canadian and a Russian, in October.

Plotting an escape route
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If the ISS needed to be evacuated in an emergency, this group could escape in the Dragon. For the remaining three, though, there would be no way home.

Russia’s space agency Roscomos is still assessing the extent of the damage to the Soyuz, as well as the possible cause.
Video taken on December 14 showed coolant streaming from the ship into the vacuum of space from a hole in a pipe less than a millimetre wide, with temperatures inside the capsule already rising.

The damage is thought to be the result of a strike from either a micro-meteorite or a tiny piece of space debris. Either way, the risks of using the ship during the heat of re-entry are high.

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What tasks were they enticed to leave their home to go and do out there in the emptiness, where there is nothing to stand on, while the solid, habitable and beautiful earth has so many nice things, and easier problems to solve?

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Multipolar negros continues taking Ls in buckets loads :D. Where is China the shining knight in an armor ready to rescue the damsels (read astronauts) in distress? :D. The coping here is on an extreme. America bad, West bad
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Without people like them you wouldn’t have GPS or cable TV or many, many other things you owe to modern science.

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Would you want to go die in space for the sake of these things?

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If this is an attempt at sarcasm, I must say it is misplaced and a foul one at that.

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No. That’s why I’m grateful to others who take that risk.

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Why? I’m not being sarcastic.

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:smiley: Good for you Monsieur, good for you.

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Good. Then I think you understand why Archimedes said, give me a place to stand, and a lever long enough, and I shall move the earth. You are an earthling, not a bird, you need a place to stand. That doesn’t mean aviation and communications are not important.

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If these were Christian missionaries stranded somewhere, would you be as dismissive?

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Robert, it is not for kings to do desperate or unwise things. Christians ought to understand that God gave man the Earth, to subdue it and have dominion over it, not the sky. I’m sure genuine Christians understand that; who would they be going to minister to? No one is out there, they are needed on earth.
Next time you are in the air, look out of the window and ask yourself if it’s wisdom to go higher, till you lose sight of the earth, yet you know that’s your home. It’s necessary to get into a plane so as to get to other places on earth, but I don’t see the necessity of leaving the earth’s orbit to go stay suspended in space. That’s tempting fate, and I have trouble calling it wisdom.

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Mapping the skies, sana sana, whose other satellites are out there, how many are there, what time do they pass over specific regions and countries, taking photos of military installations, etc etc. Kazi yao kubwa ni Spying.

Mambo ya galaxies achia idle scientists na watoto wa kintergarden. :D:D:D

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Wapewe saucer ama wakaliane, abiria wapendane

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Raundi hii umeanguka sana bro. Edited with an even better fact
Improving Eye Surgery with Space Technology - NASA
Na zingine:
International Space Station Benefits for Humanity

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Why is it necessary to do this from the sky? I’m persuaded that technology can be employed on earth, from earth. Whatever people go to do out there, wanajua wenyewe. I tend to go with what @ronybiatch says above.

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The no 1 problem of the African is he not programmed to discover new places or ideas and that’s why large parts of Africa had to be “discovered” by others. The average bonobo never quite new what lies beyond the hills until the Mzungu appeared. When others are conquering space the black race is perplexed what one is doing up there.

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You go through the articles and you will see why. But mostly microgravity or the lack of gravity is key to some nice successes.

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Watu wanashiba na kukula tenders. That is enough work for a bonobo. No contribution to humanity. Wanataka tu kusaidiwa

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And the other problem is to assume everyone who urges caution is a “bonobo” and as ignorant and “programmed” as you are