Smoke detector sounds alarm in Russian segment of International Space Station

An alarm left on the International Space Station earlier this morning as cosmonauts awoke to the scent of smoke.

You never get bored aboard the ISS these days, either mysterious air leaks, problem small cracks, broken toilet and oxygen supply generators, or a new module stubbornly wanting to leave shortly after docking, causing the ISS unexpectedly turn up to 540 degrees.

The latest incident happened at 4:55 a.m. Moscow time when a smoke detector was triggered in the Zvezda service module of the Russian segment, Roscosmos explained in a declaration. The Zvezda module, in addition to housing part of the station’s life support systems, offers accommodation for two crew members. BBC reports that the the smell of the smoke drifted to the American segment.

Roscosmos says the appearance of smoke coincided with the autonomous recharging of the station’s batteries. An air filter was turned on to remove “smoke pollution” and cool the man-made atmosphere of the space station. Once the smoke cleared, the ISS-65 crew continued their night in “rest mode,” the agency said. The main operational control group of the Russian segment said that all systems are functioning normally, and the air on board the station “corresponds to the standard indicators”.

Roscosmos did not immediately respond to my request for additional information, such as the cause of the smoke, the status of the battery charger, and possible next steps.

Life on the station seems to have returned to normal. Oleg Novitsky and Piotr Dubrovnik process with their sixspacewalk time today, as cosmonauts continue to integrate the newly arrived Nauka module.

In an email, Jonathan McDowell, a researcher at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, said such incidents are “very serious” because they could lead to smoke inhalation. Where, worse, a full-blown fire (there is a lot of flammable material up there). He characterized the Russian response as: “So, ‘there was a burning smell, but we turned up the fans and the smell is gone now, although we still don’t know what it was.‘“That response,” McDowell said, “doesn’t fill me with intense confidence. “

McDowell reminded me of a story incident aboard the Mir space station. A fire broke out on February 24, 1997 and it took the crew of six nearly 15 minutes to extinguish the “burning flame”, as NASA does describe what they did with fire extinguishers. NASA astronaut Jerry Linenger was aboard Mir at the time, and he described the incident in his memoir. Out of the planet (Going through Universe today):

As the fire spat with an intensity of anger, sparks – resembling an entire box of sparklers lit simultaneously – extended about a foot beyond the far edge of the flame. Beyond the sparks I saw what appeared to be molten wax splashing against the bulkhead in front of the fire. But he did not melt max. It was molten metal. The fire was so hot it melted metal.

So yes, fires aboard space stations are very bad. In this In this case, the fire started in Mir’s solid fuel oxygen generator and the flames were extinguished before they could damage the station or injure the crew. The incident led to new policies and training measures to prevent a recurrence.

As Roscosmos is quick to downplay today’s incident, what happened is clearly not a joke. Hope more details will emerge in the next few days to confirm everything is going really well and the crew is safe.

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