The Starliner spacecraft has started to emit strange noises @ Ars Technica –

On Saturday NASA astronaut Butch Wilmore noticed some strange noises emanating from a speaker inside the Starliner spacecraft.

“I’ve got a question about Starliner,” Wilmore radioed down to Mission Control, at Johnson Space Center in Houston. “There’s a strange noise coming through the speaker … I don’t know what’s making it.

“It was kind of like a pulsing noise, almost like a sonar ping.”

Ars Technica posted the MP3, so anyone can download it and analyze it. What could it be? Let’s speculate! Post up in the comments with your guesses! This could be a fun puzzle to solve for HAM radio folks …

Here is mine!

First, it’s NOT a signal on how to build an alien transportation device like from CONTACT.

There are probably ISS experts out there; however, I guess the ISS has some structural monitoring systems, such as “SAMS and MAMS” (Space Acceleration Measurement Systems and Microgravity Acceleration Measurement System). These could measure vibrations and accelerations on the ISS, such as mechanical operations, docking events, and external impacts like micrometeoroids. There could also be acoustic monitors; perhaps the detection is “leaking” into the Starliner’s speaker, sorta like when you have a cell phone near a speaker, and it makes sounds before it rings (I’m not sure that still happens, but it used to!). So, my guess is structural and acoustic monitoring systems are being picked up on Starliner. NASA could correlate activity logs and sensor data to see if they match with something that was going on.

OR WHO KNOWS…

Update: 9/2/24 – 7:16pm ET – Mystery solved…

“A pulsing sound from a speaker in Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft heard by NASA astronaut Butch Wilmore aboard the International Space Station has stopped. The feedback from the speaker was the result of an audio configuration between the space station and Starliner. The space station audio system is complex, allowing multiple spacecraft and modules to be interconnected, and it is common to experience noise and feedback. The crew is asked to contact mission control when they hear sounds originating in the comm system. The speaker feedback Wilmore reported has no technical impact to the crew, Starliner, or station operations, including Starliner’s uncrewed undocking from the station no earlier than Friday, Sept. 6.”