NASA Plans To Deliberately Set A 'Large-Scale' Fire In Space
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) -- Putting out fires on earth is already a challenge, but when fires break out in space where there is zero gravity, they are almost impossible to extinguish.
Scientists at NASA want to better understand how things burn in space, so they're planning to deliberately set a fire inside an American cargo spacecraft. They've dubbed it the 'Spacecraft Fire Experiment,'or 'Saffire.'
In space, flames are weightless and break into "flamelets" that are much harder to extinguish than terrestial fires. The plan is to ignite a large-scale microgravity fire aboard Orbital's Cygnus and study the way it burns. Scientists will learn how fire spreads on different combustible materials. They'll be able to observe if the fire continues to grow, or if microgravity limits the size. They believe this information will save lives.
"A spacecraft fire is one of the greatest crew safety concerns for NASA and the international space exploration community," says Gary Ruff, Saffire project manager. "Saffire is all about gaining a better understanding of how fire behaves in space so NASA can develop better materials, technologies and procedures to reduce crew risk and increase space flight safety."
Saffire will take place within box about the size of a mini refrigerator aboard Orbital's Cygnus spacecraft. After a supply rendezvous with the International Space Station, Cygnus will travel a safe distance away from the ISS and its crew, where engineers on earth will remotely set off a fire on board in its microgravity environment. The data will be recorded and downloaded to various research stations across the globe.
"It will only take a few hours to run the experiments,"says Steven Sinacore, deputy project manager. "But Cygnus will remain in space for seven days to ensure complete data transmission back to the Saffire operations team on the ground."
Afterwards, scientists say Cygnus will re-enter earth's atmosphere and burn up somewhere over the Pacific Ocean.
In all, There will be three Saffire missions launched in 2016.
WATCH NASA VIDEO: Watch how the Saffire experiment will be conducted in space
CBSSF.com writer, producer Jan Mabry is also executive producer and host of The Bronze Report. She lives in Northern California. Follow her on Twitter @janmabr.