With a Soyuz vehicle who will be replaced this month, agencies have been preparing emergency solutions to get the astronauts back to Earth. After many discussions, Frank Rubio’s seat has already been transferred to the Crew Dragon capsule… But does it make a good life raft?
This is always handy for future missions.
Degraded mode
Since December, following what has been identified as a micrometeorite impact, the Soyuz MS-22 capsule that brought (and was originally supposed to bring back) Sergei Prokopiev, Dmitri Petelin and Frank Rubio has been suffering from a critical fluid leak from cooling.
Under certain conditions, ground crews felt that the interior of the capsule could overheat. The Russian agency Roscosmos has therefore decided to send a replacement vehicle, Soyuz MS-23, by February 20. The latter will take off empty, and when it is docked with the ISS, the extended mission of the three crew members will continue normally. But by then? What scenario indeed if the ISS suffered from another emergency in February? How to evacuate the station with a Soyuz capsule presenting high risks? Ground teams have worked on the issue, and the solution for now is to rely on the capabilities of the only other vehicle available in orbit, Crew Dragon.
How many astronauts in Crew Dragon?
Crew Dragon (in this case the Endurance capsule) is equipped for 4 astronauts, and it is with this objective that it was developed and certified for and by the NAS… This is the case even if, in 2014, during of the presentation of the SpaceX capsule, there was talk of 7 places. The three seats that have “disappeared” have, for practical and technical reasons, been replaced by a space reserved for freight, located below and behind the row of seats.
Is it possible to rearrange it once in orbit? Apparently, yes: American astronaut Frank Rubio’s headquarters moved to Crew Dragon in January. NASA and SpaceX have apparently succeeded in adapting the capsule, while the life support equipment retains safety margins worthy of agency standards with an additional person, all of course, in a context where it would be urgent to evacuate the ISS. In the current case, this transfer has an additional advantage: less risk of overheating in Soyuz if it had to evacuate two astronauts instead of three.
When there’s one, there’s one…
The teams, in conjunction with SpaceX, are also studying the possibility of transforming Crew Dragon into a real future official rescue vehicle if necessary. According to the managers of the Californian company, the space dedicated to freight could be transformed according to a standard to accommodate up to two additional crew members. And three, to accommodate an entire Soyuz crew? The question is undoubtedly part of the reflections. But it may require special arrangements or conditions for this.
Note that if Crew Dragon can accommodate and save a maximum of astronauts in case of emergency, it is not the most flexible capsule to use today. Indeed, as it lands off Florida (either on the Gulf of Mexico side or on the Atlantic side), it generally requires a lot of notice for its departure as well as good weather conditions, in the air as well as on the sea. This puzzle could also be simplified in an emergency, but not without thinking about safety, especially that of a crew taking in extra members.
Source : The Verge
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