→ L-239: Emergency simulations

One of the most important events in our training flow for the Space Station are emergency simulations, because they concern situations that potentially put the crew in immediate danger and require therefor precise response actions. Anton, Terry and myself had an emergency sim a couple of weeks ago (during my logbook interruption). It was our last three-person session before our two six-person sims next summer: one with the Soyuz 40S crew that we will join on ISS upon arrival and one with the Soyuz 42S that will join us four months into our increment.

An emergency sim typically spans 5 hours and includes a numbers of scenarios covering the three emergency types we’re concerned about: a fire, a rapid depressurization (we’re losing atmosphere into space) and an ammonia leak from the external cooling lines into the cabin (highly toxic!).

So, what equipment do we have onboard to deal with these situations?

We have Caution & Warning panels throughout Station: if the emergency tone goes off, a quick look at the panel lights will tell us which situation we’re in. On those panels we can also manually trigger an alarm, if we notice an emergency condition before the ISS computers or the ground pick it up.

In each module we also have oxygen masks and fire extinguishers, while in specific locations in the Russian segment we have respirator masks and filter cartridges to allow us to survive and operate in a toxic atmosphere: pink cartridges for ammonia, red cartridges for fire.

We also have several CSA-CPs, portable instruments that measure the concentration of combustion products. They help us locate fires that are hidden behind racks and they tell us if we need to wear breathing protection to avoid intoxication. Similarly, we have portable instruments to measure ammonia concentration.

Our best friend in case of a rapid depressurization is the Russian portable manovacumeter, which measures atmospheric pressure. As we close hatches in sequence trying to isolate a leak, the needle of the manovacumeter will hopefully stop moving before we need to evacuate station, indicating that we have put a closed hatch between ourselves and a hole to space.

You can see some more pictures of an emergency sim last year here:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/astrosamantha/sets/72157637728544633/

Also, if you want to read more about the fire response, here’s an older blog entry about it:
https://blogs.esa.int/astronauts/2013/01/30/fire/

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