MOSCOW, MAY 20, (RIA Novosti) - Noisy ventilators inside the International Space Station's Zvezda (Star) crew module will be fitted with special vibration insulators. Members of the eleventh ISS expedition, i.e. Sergei Krikalev and John Phillips, will install these devices, thereby reducing noise levels.
"Previously, cosmonauts used a special instrument for measuring ISS-module noise levels," a spokesperson for the Russian mission-control center noted. "Such readouts made it possible to compile an ISS "noise map". Mission-control experts then said that all ISS ventilators must be fitted with special vibration insulators," he added.
"Previous ISS crews also tackled this problem, reducing noise levels a great deal," he stressed.
In his words, the ISS has been plagued by high noise levels since its inception. "Some cosmonauts, who have visited the station, complained of nerve-racking noise from ISS mechanisms and equipment," RIA Novosti's interlocutor noted.
At the same time, other crew members believe that this problem is far-fetched. They do not even use ear inserts being recommended by doctors. "Looks like, everything depends on individual traits," the mission-control spokesman added in conclusion.
