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contravariant_ t1_j0cgab4 wrote

And so it begins.

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quantainium_pasta t1_j0d315d wrote

Yeah, that was my main concern.

All that liquid leaking... it's gonna freeze, I assume? And then you have basically billions of particles flying around in the ISS orbital plane.

Even if it's not frozen, matter is still just matter, and the kinetic energy it has while flying around is the same.

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5up3rK4m16uru t1_j0dtglh wrote

It can only freeze or evaporate in vacuum, and due to the sun it's likely going to do the latter eventually. Also smaller objects tend to experience faster orbital decay, since they are more affected by drag. Quite relevant at the altitude of the ISS.

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BlueCyann t1_j0grv5o wrote

Uh, no? The ISS is in low earth orbit. Even if the coolant doesn’t sublime in vacuum, which it probably will, shit like that deorbits in a matter of weeks.

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contravariant_ t1_j0rm9j6 wrote

The coolant probably will. Depending on the size of the drop and the substance, it will either sublimate instantly, or freeze and then sublimate slowly as its orbit exposes it to the Sun. But that's just the big story. What about the fragments of the wall keeping the coolant there, do you think they disappeared? And the 'micrometeorite' even existing in LEO the first place shows that there is something wrong with that analysis. There are fragments in low earth orbit.

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