“There is a strange noise coming out of the speaker… I don’t know what is causing it.” He Astronaut Butch Wilmore reported to NASA a few days ago that the damaged Starliner space capsule, docked with the International Space Station (ISS), was generating a sound of unknown origin.
After an exhaustive search, NASA reported Monday that the noise had stopped and believed it was due to the return of the speaker, an audio coupler between the space station and the auxiliary craft. A perfectly rational explanation, of course, but one that recalls the beginning of many a space horror movie and would have fired anyone’s imagination.
“Dong! Damn it!” “Dong!”
The Starliner situation is reminiscent of what happened to China’s first astronaut, Yang Liwei, in 2003, as he orbited the Earth at an altitude of 340 kilometers aboard the Shenzhou 5 capsule. During the space trip, the taikonaut heard an inexplicable sound coming from outside the ship: “Dong! Damn! Dong!” Like someone “hitting an iron bucket with a wooden hammer,” he said. Or worse, like someone knocking on the door to get in.
On other space missions in 2005 and 2008, other Chinese astronauts reported hearing similar sounds, but an investigation determined that the cause was a change in the capsule’s temperature that produced a pressure difference between the inner and outer walls. Ultimately, it was these small deformations in the walls that were the source of the eerie noise, not an impatient alien.
A third case of a sonic eruption in space was experienced by the crew of the Apollo 10 mission, although it was not known until 2008. In lunar orbit, as they orbited our satellite, astronauts Stafford, Young and Cernan heard a whistling sound that made them a little nervous. The phenomenon lasted for about an hour and was recorded in NASA audio recordings, in which Cernan is heard asking Young if he hears this “music” that “sounds like it’s coming from space.” “We’ll have to find out,” Young replies. “No one’s going to believe us.”
Ultimately, it turned out that the whistle was nothing more than interference between the lunar probes’ VHF radios, but it gave rise to hours of speculation among fans of false mysteries.
Noises outside the scenario
The Spanish astronaut of the European Space Agency (ESA), Pedro Duque, who spent ten days on the ISS and flew aboard the shuttle Discovery, confirms that the space environment is usually very noisy, due to ventilation systems and survival equipment. “There is an environment of high frequencies and they tend to always be the same,” he explains to elDiario.es. “It is true that when something happens that was not foreseen in the scenario, we are struck by a quick reaction to see what it is and if measures must be taken,” he says.
Duque still remembers the day in 1998 when, during his mission in the space shuttle, he heard a noise that surprised him. “I remember noticing at a certain point a little vibration and hearing a ‘clap!’ ‘clone!’,” he says. “They were just doing a maneuver and I didn’t know it. Those of us who were in the lab were a little scared.”
These are the anomalies that can worry astronauts, especially because they can indicate a technical failure. Typically, there is a very flat sound in the background with a more strident noise that occurs periodically, which they eventually get used to, he explains. “Carbon dioxide removal equipment, for example, has a series of valves that open and close to put it in contact with the vacuum and it sounds like ‘Rrrrrr… Hold on!’ ‘Clang!'” he describes.
“You feel a shock if you hear a sound that is not normal, like if you were driving a car or a bus,” Duque explains. “A snap, snap This can be very serious, it can indicate that something is broken. Ultimately, you are in a place where you know you are in some danger.
Trained to be rational
That human beings take our irrational beliefs with them into space is a proven fact. For example, we know that Russian cosmonauts urinate on the steering wheel of the bus that takes them to the rocket, following in the footsteps of the pioneer Gagarin, or that Buzzing Aldrin brought a piece of bread and a container of wine to the Moon to commune in secret.
In one of her lectures, space archaeologist Alice Gorman shows a disturbing photograph of the space station at night, in which empty spacesuits are seen with their heads covered by a blanket, and speculates on the possibility – not so far-fetched – that the blanket because it worries them that these ghostly bodies suddenly come to life in the solitude of space. The question is: can these kinds of situations frighten an astronaut? Do they carry their fears with them from Earth, despite their training?
“In a professional astronaut, an irrational fear is very unlikely, because they go through many previous filters during the selection process and then through very hard training,” explains Daniel Marín, an astrophysicist and expert in the history of space exploration. “Although prolonged stays on space stations can affect your mental state,” he admits.
“Astronauts are people and it is normal that in certain circumstances they feel a certain fear and have a fly behind their ear, especially when something unexpected happens,” says Pedro León, a writer and space popularizer. According to him, being in a hostile environment like space, it is to some extent positive to react this way, because if the abnormal noise is caused by a serious problem, they will surely already take measures or consult mission control. “Part of your training is to control your fears and find an explanation or solution to every problem that may arise.”
Astronauts are people and it is normal that in certain circumstances they feel some fear.
Pierre Leon
— Writer and space broadcaster
Although sounds are not transmitted in the vacuum of space, León explains, it is partly possible to hear astronauts who are performing extravehicular activities outside the space station. “And they can perceive the impact of micrometeorites or space debris against the outer walls of the Space Station, in the form of small metallic impacts,” he adds. “After one of his trips into space, the astronaut Chris Hadfield He commented that sometimes, being close to the wall of a module, small impacts could be heard against the wall. “It is when the noises come out of this routine, that they can cause some fear or put them in a state of alert, at least temporarily,” he emphasizes.
Three very real “ghosts”
“There are sounds that immediately catch your attention,” Duque acknowledges. “It rarely happens, but if you hear a ping!“Like it’s a bell, the astronauts are looking at each other, for sure.” In many cases, it’s usually a micrometeorite that hit a solar panel, and because it’s all metal, the sound is transmitted throughout the station, even if it’s 50 meters away. “If it’s really loud, you go to the pressure graph, in case we have a hole, which we’ve had a few times.”
Our ghosts are the three emergency buttons on the station panel: the fire, contaminated atmosphere and pressure drop alarms.
Pedro Duc
— ESA astronaut
Despite the fear, this concern has no supernatural component, but rather a technical one. “It doesn’t occur to you that there will be anything on the other side,” says the Spanish astronaut. “It’s like hearing a click!” on the roof of your car: you don’t think that a monster has climbed on you. The astronauts’ fears are very tangible and material and concern their safety. “Our ghosts are the three emergency buttons on the station panel: the fire, contaminated atmosphere and pressure drop alarms. Each of them emits a light and makes a different noise, if they light up, you have to leave everything.
Another possibility is that astronauts are surprised by something they do not understand and do not communicate it for fear of being questioned, as happened when they saw the intraocular flashes produced by the impact of cosmic rays during their first trips to the Moon. “They know very well how to pretend and minimize the fears or phobias they may have,” explains Daniel Marín. But in 100% of cases, the explanation has nothing paranormal, he insists, as happens with helmets covered with a cover on empty spacesuits. “These covers are mandatory to protect the visor of the helmets from scratches and in case of detachment,” he emphasizes. “I’m not saying they don’t do it scare single-breasted wetsuits, but they are mainly covered for another reason.
The same goes for the recent Starliner incident, whose return to Earth without a crew is imminent. Pedro Duque is convinced that everyone knew where it came from, from the astronauts to mission control. “It’s the typical coupling when speakers and microphones are put together,” he says. “It happens all the time, if it’s one of the rescue ships, it has to be in the audio loop of the station, so that in case of an emergency and the hatch has to be closed, you don’t have to touch all the buttons at once. You have to hear directly what’s happening at the station and be able to talk to your colleagues,” he explains.
The simplest explanation, according to the Spanish astronaut, is that the Starliner is new and the audio loop is the first time it has been plugged into the station, which is patched over and over again with the audio loops of each new module added. . docks from the Dragon capsule to the Soyuz. “It’s one of the most fragile parts of the station, keeping the sound so that everyone can hear it but there is no connection, it’s very complicated,” he says.
According to him, something similar must have happened to the crew members of the Apollo 10 mission when they thought they were listening to cosmic and mysterious music. “They must have left the receiver open when they were behind the Moon, and then they increased the gain until only their own frequencies could be heard,” Duque concludes. “What many interpret as paranormal phenomena are actually procedural errors.”
