MOSCOW, December 17. /TASS/. A tiny meteoroid from the Geminids meteor shower, or a piece of space junk could have damaged the outer plating of the instrument and equipment compartment of the Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft, a Russian scientist has told TASS.
"A meteoroid of from the Geminids meteor shower cannot be ruled out as the prime suspect, because the International Space Station's orbital position is in line with the theory suggesting impact with a tiny meteoroid. When specialists locate the zone of impact, it will be fairly easy to simulate the event," said Viktor Voropayev of the Keldysh Institute for Applied Mathematics of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
In his words, meteoroids cannot be observed from the ground, and their trajectories are therefore unknown. Nevertheless, they are moving with the speed "sufficient to damage a pipe in the thermal control system," the scientist continued.
"Moreover, this section of the spacecraft has no anti-meteoroid protection," he added.
"A piece of space junk can be another possible variant," Voropayev suggested.
In his words, although the situation is unique for the International Space Station, it is nothing new for the entire space industry.
"A similar mishap occurred with a Russian telecoms satellite in early 2000s. The spacecraft suffered an instant pressure drop in its thermal control system due to coolant leak, and went spinning out of control. As a result, the spacecraft turned its antennae away from the Earth and was lost," he said, adding that the exact cause of the incident has never been established.
Now, cosmonauts and astronauts from the ISS crew will have to use the Canadarm-2 robotic arm to locate the zone of damage on the hull of Soyuz and examine it.
"A survey will help to establish whether it was damaged from the inside or from the outside. Up until that moment, external impact remains the main version," Voropayev added.
On Thursday, the outer plating of the instrument and equipment compartment of the Soyuz MS-22 crewed spacecraft docked to the ISS was damaged. Shortly afterwards the crew reported that a sensor was signaling a drop of pressure in the cooling system. Roscosmos told the media a troubleshooting team was analyzing the situation in order to propose further measures to be taken by Mission Control and the ISS crew.
Earlier, Roscosmos said a scheduled spacewalk had been canceled for technical reasons. As a Mission Control specialist said during a communication session with the cosmonauts, the spacewalk had been canceled due to problems with the thermal control system of the Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft docked to the ISS. Inside, the spacecraft remains airtight.
Roscosmos Executive Director on manned space programs Sergey Krikalyov said the damage could have been caused by a meteoroid’s collision with a radiator.