Questions tagged [emergency]
Questions about emergencies whether inflight or pertaining to delays.
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Relevance of International Operations Advisory Group Spacecraft Emergency Cross Support Working Group SOP
How readily do mission teams currently rely on the work done by the International Operations Advisory Group Spacecraft Emergency Cross Support Working Group Standard Operating Process and Procedure ...
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Could Apollo have survived the lander toppling over?
Did the Apollo mission have a contingency plan for the lander tipping over? For instance, would it have been possible for the two astronauts to somehow right it?
EDIT
This question is closely related ...
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What policies and capabilities are in place to induce hypothermia for the purpose of reducing hypoxic brain damage in EVA depressurization?
Depressurization incidents during EVA will have hypoxia as the ultimate cause of death or permanent brain damage. If an astronaut’s brain is deprived of oxygen, irreparable damage occurs after about 4 ...
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What would happen to the ISS if the Russians undocked their part?
So... RIA Novosti (Russian media agency) made a video, where they show the Russians ostensibly undocking the Zarya module and the US part of the station falls into the atmosphere (someone was playing ...
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Do you need to operate laptop computers to run the ISS SSRMS robots Canadarm2 & Dextre? What if there's a pressure loss and you're wearing a suit?
Comments and to some extent the current answer to If an ISS emergency requires pressure suits temporarily, can they still use the laptops? Move the cursor? address a highly unlikely scenario where a ...
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Have space station occupants always had a return vehicle ready?
Prompted by Scott Manley's recent video on escape vehicles I wondered:
Has there ever been a moment where someone was on board a space station but without access to a vehicle that could return them ...
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What do "initiate dragon safe haven" and "close all centerline hatches" and "next two crossings" mean?
CNN's video Hear warning to ISS after Russia's dangerous missile test plays an audio clip of a voice communication from NASA Houston ground control to the ISS crew, with the message:
...we will need ...
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Which kinds of survival equipment does Crew Dragon have, in case of an emergency landing?
Soyuz spacecraft has various survival equipment for different cases of emergency landing.
The cases include water landing, desert landing, snow winter landing (crews have special winter suits). They ...
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What are the contingency plans for lost ISS attitude control?
Apparently the Russians had a mishap with their new ISS module. The module fired its thrusters after docking and caused attitude control loss
The Russian "Nauka" module linked to the space ...
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What is the definition of a "spacecraft emergency" at the ISS, and what is the response to it?
Several sources including the Orange County Register are reporting that a "spacecraft emergency" was declared today onboard the ISS due to the new MLM module's uncommanded thruster firings ...
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Apollo 14-17 - Why didn't they keep the Lunar Module docked as a lifeboat for the way back to Earth?
During Apollo 13, the Lunar Module had to be used as a lifeboat in order to save the astronauts. Then, it was only jettisoned from the Command Module shortly before Earth re-entry (even after the ...
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Flying around on a fire extinguisher
It's in many movies... the astronaut grabs a fire extinguisher and uses it to propel themselves around. It's even in the Shuttle operations manual (2.2-9)
"Consideration should be given to the ...
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What happens if the inner door of a depressurised airlock fails?
What are the consequences of the INNER door of a spaceship airlock system suddenly failing (for whatever reason) when the airlock itself is depressurised? (The ship itself is in space/vacuum and not ...
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How could SpaceX’s crew Dragon land with abort thrusters in case of emergencies?
Reading this question and this article linked in one answer, in case of two or three main parachute failure, how could super-dracos be able to slow down vertical velocity short before touchdown, since ...
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Can the SuperDraco engines aboard Crew Dragon be used to save the crew on splashdown if the chutes failed?
I've heard it several ways, so I should ask here. In the case of a main chute failure, are the SuperDracos able to attempt a contingency propulsive splashdown to save Dragon's crew? If this is in the ...
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A Parmitano ‘maneuver’
Referring to the 2013 incident when Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano suffered a leak in his EVA suit causing water to build up dangerously around his face. By the time he was approaching the airlock, ...
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What were the space shuttle’s emergency procedures for an SRB or ET separation failure?
The space shuttle, like most launch vehicles, was a multistage vehicle (albeit one where the various stages were mostly stuck to the sides of each other rather than being stacked vertically), reducing ...
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Has a fire alarm/emergency at mission control interrupted operations?
As seems likely to be common practice, in the first attempt at SpaceX's Crew-Demo2 launch, key operators were instructed to remain at their posts in the event of a fire alarm, while others evaluated ...
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Have there been any advances in space exploration due to COVID-19 and/or shelter-in-place behavior?
Complementing Have there been any setbacks due to COVID-19— like delays or data-loss? I'm asking if there have been any advances or benefits due to COVID-19 and the "shelter in place" behavior it has ...
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Had using the LEM's engines for a lunar abort "never been tried like this?"
From the 1995 film Apollo 13,
GRUMMAN REP: I just want you to know the engines never been tried like
this. That's all I'm trying to tell you.
Is it true that Grumman had never considered such a ...
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Have there been any setbacks due to COVID-19-- like delays or data-loss?
I want to ask how this pandemic is expected to affect space travel and future plans for NASA and other space agencies. I've decided with the help of meta to ask more specifically about any currently ...
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Is a low-altitude, stable glide really absolutely needed to bail out of the space shuttle?
After the Challenger disaster, the Space Shuttle astronauts were outfitted with pilot spacesuits equipped with parachutes and internal emergency oxygen supplies, and the space shuttle was equipped ...
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If the ISS had an emergency, how long would it take to get a rocket to it?
If there was an urgent need to launch a rocket to the ISS, how long would it take to have a rocket ready to launch?
I am trying to understand what factors take up the time to prepare for a rocket ...
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Can astronauts in currently planned pressure suits survive a cabin which cannot be repressurized?
Imagine the Crew Dragon (or Stariner or Orion) has just achieved orbit. Due to a manufacturing flaw or a meteor, the window suddenly blows out. All 6 of the crew manages to get their suit visor's ...
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First actions taken after identifying a potentially catastrophic decompression?
Organic Marble gave an answer to my question "Procedures if there was a shuttle decompression in the vacuum of space," precisely as I worded the request.
The wording of my question was imprecise so ...
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Procedures if there was a shuttle decompression in the vacuum of space
Has NASA ever published what the space shuttle astronauts would be tasked to do if a potentially catastrophic decompression occurred in space.
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What happens after a crew finishes putting out a fire?
I was reading the question How do we use Fire Extinguishers to Control Fire in the Space Station?
This got me thinking about how the crew would clean-up after a fire. How do they decide if the ...
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Best (or least worst) conditions to "store" an astronaut in a suit for six days?
@GremlinWrangler's answer to How can an Astronaut survive for six days inside a Spacesuit? includes the following:
make sure the suit can provide air and water, and adjust the temperature to ...
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How can an Astronaut survive for six days inside a Spacesuit?
In the video #AskNASA | What are the Next Generation Spacesuits?, spacesuit engineer Dustin Gohmert says the following about the Orion Crew Survival Suit (Orange Spacesuit):
This suit is also ...
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Are there any plans for handling people floating away during an EVA?
An EVA carries the risk that objects and people may become detached from the ship/structure and drift away from it. In the case of objects they might become a hazard or their loss might be a problem, ...
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Are there any rocket engines in current or former use that aren’t normally restarted in flight, but have the capability for an emergency restart?
(Inspired by my earlier question about restarting a flamed-out RS-25 SSME in flight.)
Most rocket engines are not designed to be lit more than once.1 Most first-stage rocket engines, for that matter,...
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Can I transmit signals from a wristwatch to geostationary orbit?
In comments below this answer to the question Which satellites can hear emergency signals from Scott Kelley's watch? we are (or at least I am) trying to figure out definitively if a wristwatch can ...
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What would be the longest hypothetical emergency which would confine the Apollo astronauts to their suits?
This answer poses the possibility of an emergency that would require Apollo astronauts to spend the rest of the mission in their suits:
A hole in the CSM might be more of an issue, since large ...
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How would a mousetrap for use in space work?
To the question If mice escaped on the International Space Station, could they live and thrive? both the answer and comments point out that while mice escaped from an experiment might survive a while ...
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Could a pressure suit be used for a short emergency EVA?
What if a docking accident leaves the spacecraft depressurized and unable to re-pressurize. The hatch may be jammed/ punctured or a window blown. In such a scenario, the astronauts would have their ...
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Slide rope way from launch pad of space shuttle?
In the MIT OCW of Aerospace System Engineering lecture 14 at 37:40, Prof Jeffery Hoffman talks about ropeway from space shuttle that goes to a bunker and then they have to ride a military tank !
I ...
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How to slow a spinning spacecraft externally?
I came accross the is question What are the consequences to breaking the ISS? and wander how would a spacecraft be made to stop spinning from the outside?
Scenarios might include (but are not limited ...
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Why didn’t the space shuttle’s engine-out checklists include steps for attempting a relight?
Throughout much of a space shuttle ascent, even a single SSME failure would have left the mission’s intended orbit out of reach and forced some sort of abort; a two-SSME-out situation would have left ...
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Why would a space shuttle have flown a normal first-stage and early-second-stage ascent trajectory during an RTLS abort?
Had a space shuttle suffered a main-engine failure very early on during ascent, or had a time-critical emergency (for instance, a crewmember unexpectedly having a stroke) occurred before negative ...
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Is this a photo of today's Soyuz anomaly happening in flight seen from the ISS? What are the little dots?
ISS Exp. 57 Cmdr. and ESA Astronaut Alexander Gerst's Tweet today says:
Glad our friends are fine. Thanks to the rescue force of >1000 SAR professionals! Today showed again what an amazing vehicle ...
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Can Stratolaunch land with the rocket still attached?
Is the Stratolaunch plane able to land with the rocket still attached, if a malfunction is detected – and the plane has to return without having launched its load?
Is there a known emergency ...
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Which satellites can hear emergency signals from Scott Kelley's watch?
In this July 2018 tweet by Cdr. Scott Kelley, with the north face of Mt. Everest over his shoulder, he mentions his "Emergency" watch.
I've searched and then found the Hodinkee.com article ...
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Why does this researcher have a "clear plastic bag" over their head?
The Space.com article Astronauts Zip-Line to Safety in These NASA Emergency Evacuation Test Photos includes some interesting photos of the test. I show one of the photos below, plus sone cropped ...
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What is the procedure when a spacesuit gets a tear in it? [duplicate]
What do you do if you are in space and you get a rip in your spacesuit other than getting right with God? What if you cannot get back to base in time?
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Emergency Spacesuit Protection?
In an emergency how much and what kind of protection would a spacesuit provide protecting against an explosive decompression event in the habitat the wearer is in?
Can air pressure be accumulated ...
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What would the procedure be in the event of a collision warning on the ISS
In the event of something accidently being placed into the same orbital path as the ISS and on an imminent collision course, assuming it would be an object with the potential to cause some damage or ...
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What type of comms traffic for deep-space missions needs to be prioritized?
I am currently studying DSN related stuff, and for that purpose, I need to know some details.
I am currently studying the Deep Space Network, and I am trying to get a better picture of how DSN ...
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Could the ISS stop rotating wrt the stars for a few days, then start again?
Suppose for some reason it was particularly advantageous to stop the ISS from rotating once per orbit, so that it maintained a constant attitude with respect to the stars (or the Sun) instead of with ...
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If an ISS emergency requires pressure suits temporarily, can they still use the laptops? Move the cursor?
This answer to the question Which specifications should a tablet computer have in order to work in outer space? points out that capacitive-sensitive touch pads, mouse pads and touch-sensitive screens ...
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Has DSS-43 ever been used in high power mode (>>20 kW) for an emergency situation?
This answer notes that while most Deep Space Network transmitters are 20 kW of power or less, one dish (DSS-43 in Canberra) is equipped with a transmitter capable of 400 kW.
As described in 101, 70-m ...
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