In an emergency situation how long would it take crew members to abort the international space station and return to earth. Would it take a few hours or days?
Space-Flight
- Thread starter Quentin Nokov
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If there were something that could get them to Earth deocked, then they could leave pretty quickly. If they had to call for a taxi from Earth, then they would have to wait. The length of the wait would depend on how ready the taxi was. It could take a few days or it could take more than a week.
They have a Soyuz space vehicle on the ISS at all times. In a real emergency they could be gone within minutes I suppose.
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DJ is right. There is always a Soyuz capsule docked to the ISS for every 3-man crew. When there are two crews, there are two capsules. I'm sure they do regular start up and shutdown procedures to keep the capsules fit and ready to start up in an emergency.
If you're interested, here's the ISS emergency procedures manual from 2000. It outlines pretty much every problem and what the crew is supposed to do.
If you're interested, here's the ISS emergency procedures manual from 2000. It outlines pretty much every problem and what the crew is supposed to do.
So, basically from the time of departure to their return to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, an estimated time of say five hours, according to this following link would be a reasonably realistic duration or would the Space-Station-to-Earth trajectory take longer?
mirandashell
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Your linked article is about the Space Shuttle and is not really applicable.
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/structure/elements/soyuz/landing.html
Bolding mine.
The Soyuz craft is not meant to land in the water. In an emergency, it would probably separate and then go through procedures to make sure it undergoes a landing on solid ground. Soyuz 23 landed in water, and the capsule filled with water and sunk. The astronauts were lucky to survive.
Yeah, I was going to say I thought the Soyuz always landed in Russia. Though I suppose they COULD land in the US if there was a reason.
Okay, that exactly what I needed to know. Since it's fiction I'll change the space-craft to hold six people and change it to land in the U.S. I just wanted to make sure the time-frame of them leaving the ISS and return to earth within 3-5 hour was plausible.
Although, I do have a second question if anyone will be around to answer it. In the last hour, how busy is Mission Control? If someone left for fifteen minutes would it be crucial to their staff?
Although, I do have a second question if anyone will be around to answer it. In the last hour, how busy is Mission Control? If someone left for fifteen minutes would it be crucial to their staff?
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Definitely plausible. 3-4 hours is most likely.
In the last hour before reentry? Pretty busy. Reentry is a really touchy, extremely dangerous endeavour. To shallow or steep, and the crew is gone. It depends on who you're having leave, but any one of the console guys will be pretty busy making sure everything is on the mark. Someone could relieve them if necessary though.