IT鈥橲 a trick familiar to all cellphone users: if you won鈥檛 be able to hear your phone ring, switch it to vibrate as well. Now this approach could help astronauts pinpoint potentially catastrophic air leaks aboard spacecraft.
Researchers at the Center for Nondestructive Evaluation at Iowa State University in Ames have developed a sensor that can detect ultrasonic vibrations caused by air leaks in walls. As air leaks out, the slight vibration of the spacecraft鈥檚 skin is converted by the piezoelectric sensors into an electrical signal that can be amplified and analysed.
Today, astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) use microphones to listen for the hiss of air escaping into space, but these are largely ineffective: the sound is lost into the vacuum with the air.
Advertisement
