Russian experts continue to find out the cause of the formation of cracks in the Zvezda module on the International Space Station (ISS), but the version of metal fatigue has been ruled out, said Sergey Krikalev, adviser to the General Director of Roscosmos, in an interview with RIA Novosti.
"That is, they [experts] can't say what (caused the cracks), but they can say [that] not because of fatigue," he said.
Krikalev added that, according to experts, the case in which cracks were found, used up its resource by 40-50 percent.
According to the adviser to the general director of Roscosmos, there may be several dozen reasons for the appearance of cracks. As an example, Krikalev called the ingress of micrometeorite, electrochemical corrosion of metal, defective metal, mechanical damage to the body from the inside, violation of welding technology.
Earlier it was reported that cosmonauts from Russia were going to look for an air leak in the Russian module of the ISS with the help of dry soup. Cosmonaut Pyotr Dubrov scattered it in a leaky compartment and installed a video camera to track the movements of the soup. After that, he closed the hatch leading to this part of the module until July. Thus, the astronauts will try to detect cracks in the body of the"Star".
In March, the Russian Zvezda module recorded a continued air leak after sealing two cracks. For 11 and a half hours, the pressure in the chamber decreased by 52 millimeters.
On March 10, it was reported that [...] a new crack was found on the ISS. Cosmonaut Ryzhikov applied a second layer of sealant to it. At the same time, it was located near the pipeline of the heat supply system.
The hole in the ISS hull was formed at the end of December 2020. An air leak in the Russian module at the station was discovered in September.
Marina Sovina