• Question: what would you do if your space suit started leaking while you where outside the ship/rocket in space?

    Asked by will to Simon, Julia, Delma, Andrew, Alex on 15 Dec 2015.
    • Photo: Alexander Finch

      Alexander Finch answered on 15 Dec 2015:

      If it was my suit while on a space walk, I’d rush back to the airlock and get insode the spacecraft! Assuming it was a small leak, the air supply in the backpack should be able to keep the pressure up for a short while. And spacewalks are always done in pairs, so I’d have my buddy to help me get back.

      If the leak was in the spacecraft, then the emergency plan springs into action! First, the astronauts work out how much time they have before the air pressure becomes dangerously low.

      If there is very little time, they rush to the docked Soyuz space capsules and isolate them from the space station – treating them as “lifeboats”. They could work out whats going on from them safely, and return to Earth if there’s nothing they can do.

      If it’s just a small leak and they have time to fix it, then there’s a repair kit on the space station they can use to patch it – like fixing a bike tyre!

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