Chinese astronaut puzzled by 'knocking sound' in space

 

Imagine you're alone in a tiny spacecraft - it's your first time up there, all alone in endless space. Then suddenly - a knocking sound.

 

That's what happened to Yang Liwei, China's first man in space, on his maiden flight in 2003.

 

In a recent interview, he has now recalled hearing "someone knocking the body of the spaceship just as knocking an iron bucket with a wooden hammer". "It neither came from outside nor inside the spaceship."

 

Full story: http://www.bbc.com/news/38153623

 

-- © Copyright BBC 2016-11-30

He was going to be asked if he was a zero dollar tourist

Quote

 

His colleague Wee-Seng Soh brings a different explanation to the table, suggesting it could have been "a result of expansion or contraction of the spaceship, especially since the temperature of the spaceship's exterior could change considerably within the orbit".

 

 

I used to live in a high rice building in Singapore and almost every evening, there was a sound like a marble ball was dropped to a hard floor. Ping..... ping...ping..ping,ping,ping. Took me a while to figure out that it was the building cooling after a hot day. 

 

Or perhaps my upstairs neighbour was just trolling others :)

 

Yep, likely rapid expansion/contraction of the hull - going from couple hundred °C to -100°C in minutes - coupled with dodgy Chinese fabrication. Having said that, it would have done it on each orbit (every 90mins or so). hmmm. Chinese space junk...

Edited November 30, 20169 yr by daveAustin

1 hour ago, oilinki said:

Quote

 

 Quote
I used to live in a high rice building in Singapore and almost every evening, there was a sound like a marble ball was dropped to a hard floor. Ping..... ping...ping..ping,ping,ping. Took me a while to figure out that it was the building cooling after a hot day. 
 
Or perhaps my upstairs neighbour was just trolling others :)
 Unquote


I lived in a low rise maisonette in Singapore for many years and occasionally had the same noise in my ceiling. But I had no upstairs neighbour to attribute it to...so thanks for your explanation re: cooling of the building.

Edited November 30, 20169 yr by mark5335

7 minutes ago, coma said:

 

If it were as simple as that then you wouldn't need to be a "rocket scientist" to work that out. So why is it a story ? Why was it kept hush hush for so many years ?

Do those on ISS here similar noises ? Did the Cosmonauts on Mir hear them ?

Oh, spooky talk by 'Night warrior'. Unfortunately at the current date, we have people who think Creation was a factual event of the bible. Unfortunately there has are still so low educated folks, who don't have a basic understanding of sciences. The blobs of moronic part of the humanity. 

In sciences we can accept uncertainty. We can understand that we still have very little understanding how the our known Universe actually works. We are doing our best to improve the understanding bit by bit. 

The things we don't know today, will be understood later on. That's just how things progress. Sometimes very fast, most often quite slowly. 

But hey, if the Mir wishes to say, we have encountered alien spices, it must be right? No, not really. They even didn't say so. Even they know that it's not wise thing to say in the name of propaganda. 

It's about the Chinese and they are very superstitious.   

 

Now, put on your space suits, go outside and check for the little North Korean guy hiding in the wheel wells.   

Engine knock, should change the spark plugs.

 

 

Shouldn't have ignored that warning....

 

First thing I would do would be to check the Big End !

I used to have a Peugeot 104 that used to make the same noises .Luckily I had a good stereo to drown out the noise..

30 minutes ago, kwak250 said:

I used to have a Peugeot 104 that used to make the same noises .Luckily I had a good stereo to drown out the noise..

 

In space there is no one to hear Steven Tyler scream.

If you really want to know what it was just ask Chalerm. However he may prefer not to say.

I guess that knocking  is much better to hear  than

hissing , especially if the hissing gets louder and louder.

Geezer

19 hours ago, oilinki said:

 

I used to live in a high rice building in Singapore and almost every evening, there was a sound like a marble ball was dropped to a hard floor. Ping..... ping...ping..ping,ping,ping. Took me a while to figure out that it was the building cooling after a hot day. 

 

Or perhaps my upstairs neighbour was just trolling others :)

 

 

..big end bearings are buggered mate!

7 hours ago, Credo said:

It's about the Chinese and they are very superstitious.   

 

Now, put on your space suits, go outside and check for the little North Korean guy hiding in the wheel wells.   

 

 

..maybe its George Clooney from 'Gravity'.

20 hours ago, webfact said:

someone knocking the body of the spaceship

Girl Scouts selling cookies?

 

He should Know that alien's are polite, they knock before entering.

On 30/11/2016 at 1:27 AM, daveAustin said:

Yep, likely rapid expansion/contraction of the hull - going from couple hundred °C to -100°C in minutes - coupled with dodgy Chinese fabrication. Having said that, it would have done it on each orbit (every 90mins or so). hmmm. Chinese space junk...

Before you say "Chinese Space Junk", read online Dr Joseph Needham's "Chinese Scientific Inventions and Culture". (1) 1403 the world biggest maritime expedition visited South East Asia and Kenya in Africa,  biggest wooden ship built in the world in 1403 (444 feet long as big as a cruise liner today) with canons on board. They grew vegetable and kept pickles vegetables to prevent scurvy. In England Captain Bligh in 1780s still had problems with scurvy.(200 years of ignorance) (2) First compartmentalized ships built to prevent sinking, Europe only solved this problem 200 years later. (3) Make the world first hormone pills from men's urine- using big cauldron to evoporate men's urine to collect white crystal formed. European doctors agreed it could be done and the pill would be effective after reading the translated copies of the original texts.

Your ignorance will keep you in the dark. All learned historians in America and Europe knew about these inventions and do not dispute them.

Carbon dating on those scientific papers written in chinese writing proved they are authentic. Many more interesting inventions you just have to read them and it's mind boggling. Three thick volumes for you to read.

36 minutes ago, madusa said:

Before you say "Chinese Space Junk", read online Dr Joseph Needham's "Chinese Scientific Inventions and Culture". (1) 1403 the world biggest maritime expedition visited South East Asia and Kenya in Africa,  biggest wooden ship built in the world in 1403 (444 feet long as big as a cruise liner today) with canons on board. They grew vegetable and kept pickles vegetables to prevent scurvy. In England Captain Bligh in 1780s still had problems with scurvy.(200 years of ignorance) (2) First compartmentalized ships built to prevent sinking, Europe only solved this problem 200 years later. (3) Make the world first hormone pills from men's urine- using big cauldron to evoporate men's urine to collect white crystal formed. European doctors agreed it could be done and the pill would be effective after reading the translated copies of the original texts.

Your ignorance will keep you in the dark. All learned historians in America and Europe knew about these inventions and do not dispute them.

Carbon dating on those scientific papers written in chinese writing proved they are authentic. Many more interesting inventions you just have to read them and it's mind boggling. Three thick volumes for you to read.

 

Indeed an ancient and wise civilization that like many others threw the baby out with the bath water thanks to those lovely communists.

 

Now Chinese steel is somewhat variable in quality. Not as bad as 30 years ago, but not good either.

Well, it is Chinese. It's a fair assumption that they would build spaceships to the same standards as they build everything else.

 

Alternatively, it could have been Hal.

7 hours ago, madusa said:

1403 the world biggest maritime expedition visited South East Asia and Kenya in Africa,  biggest wooden ship built in the world in 1403 (444 feet long as big as a cruise liner today) with canons on board.

He quoted a considerable amount of evidence, but circumstantial, for the most part.

It was only Dave.

 

' Who ? '

' Dave'

'..........Daves not here. '

In the film The Right Stuff, there is a scene purporting to see sparks fly past the window of the space craft in orbit, while in Australia the Aborigines are around a fire. In the book that the film is made from there is no such mention of sparks or Aborigines. Someone was taking the pssi!

On ‎30‎.‎11‎.‎2016 at 9:21 PM, oilinki said:

Oh, spooky talk by 'Night warrior'. Unfortunately at the current date, we have people who think Creation was a factual event of the bible. Unfortunately there has are still so low educated folks, who don't have a basic understanding of sciences. The blobs of moronic part of the humanity. 

In sciences we can accept uncertainty. We can understand that we still have very little understanding how the our known Universe actually works. We are doing our best to improve the understanding bit by bit. 

The things we don't know today, will be understood later on. That's just how things progress. Sometimes very fast, most often quite slowly. 

But hey, if the Mir wishes to say, we have encountered alien spices, it must be right? No, not really. They even didn't say so. Even they know that it's not wise thing to say in the name of propaganda. 

In sciences we can accept uncertainty. We can understand that we still have very little understanding how the our known Universe actually works. We are doing our best to improve the understanding bit by bit. 

The 97% of scientists that support Global Warming would have us believe otherwise. They claim to know it all.