Apparently a 1.5mm puncture due to a meteor/debris strike in the Russian Soyuz MS-09 module.<p>More information:<p><a href="http://blogs.esa.int/alexander-gerst/2018/08/30/slow-leak-detected-aboard-space-station/" rel="nofollow">http://blogs.esa.int/alexander-gerst/2018/08/30/slow-leak-de...</a><p><a href="https://twitter.com/RussianSpaceWeb?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor" rel="nofollow">https://twitter.com/RussianSpaceWeb?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7...</a><p><a href="http://www.russianspaceweb.com/soyuz-ms-09.html#leak" rel="nofollow">http://www.russianspaceweb.com/soyuz-ms-09.html#leak</a>
"The rate of the leak was slowed this morning through the temporary application of Kapton tape at the leak site."<p>In tape we trust!<p>I hope they show close ups!
At 1.5mm, a piece of tape would come closer than you'd think to being a permanent fix...<p>The vacuum of space seems drastically hard to keep at bay, but consider that you're only holding in enough gas to replicate sea-level air pressure (nominally 14 PSI or so). A typical soda can is pressurized to between 30 and 50 PSI depending on temperature, beverage etc.<p>Supposedly the apollo command module had a pressure skin that was as thin as 0.012" (0.3mm) in places.
At 1.5mm dust could block that hole from the inside and _sufficiently large (epoxy) bandaid_ could patch it from the outside.<p>Edit, from twitter link, "... has been sealed temporarily by tape ..."
ISS Live Stream: <a href="http://www.ustream.tv/channel/live-iss-stream" rel="nofollow">http://www.ustream.tv/channel/live-iss-stream</a>
Has been fixed by now.<p>IF you have spare monitor going at your office/home, its fun to watch the ISS up to second tracking locations [1].<p>Fun fact I learned lately about ISS: at 400km above Earth's surface, the gravity is about 80% of a normal Earth gravity. The ISS is constantly falling down but because of Earth rotation it is falling "at the edge" so to speak so it never actually fell on the ground. Hope that make sense, I'm sure you read better explanation on Wiki.<p>[1] <a href="http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Human_Spaceflight/International_Space_Station/Where_is_the_International_Space_Station" rel="nofollow">http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Human_Spaceflight/Internat...</a>
I've seen several of these "F-35 is a failure" articles over the past few years, and I have a new theory about it.<p>Making the opposition think you're weak is a strategy. Straight from Sun Tzu. Negative press propaganda is a tool in itself.
Would the leak be enough to significantly change the trajectory of the station such that it needs correction?<p>Surely the force of the leak is very small compared to the size of the station, but if it had been leaking for a while the change could add up.
I've heard that the whole construction up there has been getting leakier over time. I wonder what exactly the threshold is these days to constitute a "slow leak"...
"the hole is covered using Alexander Gerst's finger for now" - <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/space/comments/9bi49u/the_iss_is_currently_experiencing_a_slow/e535dlh/" rel="nofollow">https://www.reddit.com/r/space/comments/9bi49u/the_iss_is_cu...</a>
...perhaps a layer of self assembling/repairing nanoskin?...<p><a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1672652911600280" rel="nofollow">https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S167265291...</a><p>...or somthing similar