Ammonia leak detection on the international space station

The US Aeronautics Agency (NASA) said the astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS) have detected an ammonia leak in the cooling system outside the facility.

The astronauts on the ISS saw white floating snowflakes from where they were working at around 20:30 (Vietnam time) on May 9. According to NASA, fixing this leak may require temporary suspension of part of the cooling system for about 48 hours.

ISS station is moving in space with average speed
27,743.8 km / hour, corresponding to 15.79 times of the Earth's daily flight. (Photos: Wikipedia)

"However, the ISS station will continue to operate normally and astronauts will be in no danger , " the statement said on NASA's website.

In a telephone conversation with the ground, Chris Hadfield - a Canadian astronaut in charge of the ISS station said, he witnessed a continuous flow of ammonia snow from the area of ​​one of many rolls. Cool station. The leak is defined in the P6 structure of the cooling system.

According to officials, the leak is getting worse. They still don't know if it is related to a leak that happened earlier in 2012.

Ammonia is currently used to cool power supply equipment for ISS stations. Each station's solar panel is equipped with a separate cooling coil.

The ISS is a 100-billion-dollar space-based research facility on Earth orbit, built by the United States, Russia and Europe, Japan and Canada. International astronaut groups, including 6 people, alternately work at this space station.