- Understanding how fires spread in space is very important to improve the safety of astronauts.
- To study the behavior of fire in space, NASA launched the Saffire mission a few years ago.
- The fourth experiment of the mission will take place in the coming days.
NASA is going to burn the interior of one of its ships. It is an experiment in the framework of the Saffire mission that aims to check how fire behaves in space.
In order to guarantee the safety of astronauts in space, NASA launched the Saffire mission a few years ago to carry out different tests that allow it to develop and demonstrate fire safety technologies in spacecraft.
“Understanding how fires spread in space is vital to developing fire-resistant materials and fire prevention measures, but it is difficult to conduct experiments onboard a spacecraft,” says NASA.
So far, the US space agency has conducted three fire safety experiments on spacecraft from the Saffire mission, two in 2016 and one in 2017. In these trials, NASA has studied the growth of flames on a large scale. and the flammability limits of materials in space.
In the coming days, the US space agency will carry out the fourth experiment on the Saffire mission. To do this, it will once again use the Cygnus refueling vehicle, a cargo module that supplies the International Space Station with several tons of scientific experiments and supplies.
Cygnus left the International Space Station last Monday after delivering his cargo, and after completing his supply task Saffire-IV, his side mission began.
Saffire’s fourth experiment will examine the growth of fire in different materials and environmental conditions. Specifically, this time it will focus on quantifying the growth of fire in the range of pressures and oxygen concentrations expected in the exploration spacecraft.
In addition, it will also test fire detection systems, as well as combustion product monitoring capabilities and post-fire cleanup tasks.
The results of this mission are not only useful for application in space, but also in other terrestrial environments. “This research benefits the fire safety efforts in similar environments on Earth, from submarines to mine”, says the Agency.