Space Station Chemical Leak Raises Alarm

Harmful chemical leaks in space station, AP
"We don't exactly know the nature of the spill ... but the crew is doing
well," said Mike Suffredini, NASA's space station program manager. "It's
not a life-threatening material."
"The crew first reported smoke but it turned out to be an irritant,
potassium hydroxide, leaking from an oxygen vent, Suffredini said."

--
Gareth Slee

"nmp" wrote in message
news
Op Mon, 18 Sep 2006 18:12:58 +0100, schreef Gareth Slee:

Harmful chemical leaks in space station, AP "We don't exactly know the
nature of the spill ... but the crew is doing well," said Mike
Suffredini, NASA's space station program manager. "It's not a
life-threatening material."
"The crew first reported smoke but it turned out to be an irritant,
potassium hydroxide, leaking from an oxygen vent, Suffredini said."

Brrrrrr...

Why have potassium hydroxide inside a space station? I mean, isnt'it BAD?

It's used in the Russian Elektron, which is an oxygen generation system. It
takes in surplus H2O and splits it into H2, which is vented outside, and O2,
which is vented inside. The same, or very similar, system was used on Mir
for quite some time. It seems that the Elektron is still as problematic on
ISS as it was on Mir. :-(

Jeff
--
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a
little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor
safety"
- B. Franklin, Bartlett's Familiar Quotations (1919)