Experimental development onboard the ISS Russian segment of the prototype system for quick localization of a puncture in the space station pressure shell

Improving safety of space station operations at the time when the near-Earth space is getting increasingly littered with space junk is one of the principal problems in space station design. Along with the measures to reduce the risk of the station pressure shell penetration resulting from a collision with a meteoroid or a piece of space debris that involve protection of the module pressure shells with shields, there is also a need for developing measures and equipment aimed at mitigating catastrophic consequences of the penetration. One of the key factors allowing successful recovery from an emergency situation caused by station depressurization in case of a puncture is the time needed to locate the puncture, which determines possible scenarios for crew actions during recovery operations and their result. The Immediate Puncture Localization System (IPLS) presented in this paper provides reliable and virtually immediate detection of the time and location of the penetration. The proposed concept for the IPLS architecture is based on the use of piezoelectric sensors of acoustic emissions distributed over the inner surface of the pressurized shell of the module that are connected to an electronic unit for processing signals from the sensors. The paper presents the results of studies of the scientific and engineering feasibility of the IPLS operating principles conducted at RSC Energia and TsNIIMash, as well as results of developmental tests on a prototype of such a system in the Service Module of the International Space Station (ISS) in the space experiment Otklik conducted under the Applied Research Program of the ISS Russian Segment.