[meteorite-list] Skylad 4 Astronaut, William Pouge, on Micrometeorite Damage

[MARK BOSTICK]

Hello list,

Last month I posted a letter from Skylab 4 science pilot Ed Gibson on 
micro-meteorite damage. (Skylab 4, the third and final manned flight to the 
Skylab space station, November 16, 1973 to February 8, 1974). This short Q 
and A is from correspondence I had with Skylab 4 pilot William Pogue.  For 
your convenience I have put my question, and followed it by Pogue's answers.


Mark: It is my understanding that micrometeorites form little craters when 
impactite the ship.  Have you ever felt any of these impacts and did you see 
any damage on the space craft after you landed?

William Pogue unlined "ever felt" and wrote "NO" to the side and unlined 
"see any damage" and wrote "No" on the side of it.

Mark: Is there any special tools NASA sends with astronauts, or special 
training you where given in the case a meteorite should strike and heavily 
damage a craft while in use?

William Pogue: On Skylab we had two types of patches in the event a 
meteoroid penetraded the spacecraft.
1. Carrot - shaped cones to plug and clean holes.
2. Dome shaped hemispheric patches to cover larger or jagged holes.

(end)

Pogue was also kind to photocopy sections from his Q and A book "How Do You 
Go To The Bathroom in Space?":

Question 177.  Did you hit any meteoroids?  What would happen if you did hit 
one?

     Yes, but all were very small, the size of a tiny speck of dust.  We had 
special test surfaces monted outside on Skylab that were called 
micro-meteoroid samples. Tiny meteoroid particles made minatur crates when 
they hit some of the samplers.  A meteoroid larger then a pinhead (1/16 inch 
diameteor or larger) would probably urn a hole in the wall of a spacecraft 
if it were not protected.  Assuming no one was hit by the tiny fragments, 
the worst problem arising from the hole would be loss of air.  The large the 
meteoroid, the worse the problem.  The hazard from meteoriods is actually 
less than being hit by manmade orbital debis.
      Hits from micro-meteoroids have been detected on our helmets, but the 
tiny pits are not visible to the unaided eye.  A scanning electron 
microscope can be used to take pictures of them.  They look like miniature 
craters.

Clear Skies,
Mark Bostick
www.meteoritearticles.com