CLEVELAND — As humans continue to explore life beyond Earth, experts at NASA Glenn Research Center are experimenting with how a fire can spread in space.
On Tuesday night, a Northrup Grumman resupply spacecraft is set to liftoff from NASA's Wallops, Virginia facility. In addition to supplies for the International Space Station, the uncrewed spacecraft will also carry a container where a fire is set to start inside.
It's all part of the NASA Saffire (Spacecraft Fire Safety) mission, meant to test how a fire can spread in space and what can be done to prevent it.
The Saffire-V experiment tested aboard the uncrewed @NorthropGrumman Cygnus spacecraft helps scientists understand fire growth in microgravity.
— NASA Wallops (@NASA_Wallops) July 26, 2022
Learn about this and more of the benefits to humanity researched on the @Space_Station: https://t.co/QhImdxQxUl pic.twitter.com/UGayw2IQPW
"It’s very hard to light a fire when there are people around in a small space," Dr. David Urban, NASA's principal investigator for the Saffire mission, said. "We’ve been able to do fire testing in every kind of inhabited structure: buildings, planes, trains, cars, submarines, you name it. But we hadn’t done any of that testing of that type in a spacecraft because there’s always people present."
After the Cygnus spacecraft docks at the International Space Station and is filled with trash, it is set to leave the ISS and begin its Saffire experiment as early as late November.
This is the sixth experiment in a series based out of Cleveland's NASA Glenn Research Center, adding a little more fire each time and testing the boundaries of what can happen. Earlier experiments gave engineers an idea of how fire spreads in low gravity.
"In a low gravity spacecraft, they tend to grow more slowly, but detecting the fire is more challenging because the smoke doesn’t go into a known location," Urban said. "Every time we change the geometry, we get surprised by the flame. It’s never quite what we thought it would be."
"It’s the largest thing you can transport on the spacecraft," Dr. Urban explained.
Over the years, NASA has seen how fire and smoke can come into play, which is why they’re working to learn more about how to prevent it.
Back in 1967, three astronauts aboard Apollo 1 died during a launch rehearsal test on Earth when a fire quickly spread through their module.
"That was a very small space with very hazardous circumstances," Urban said. "Smoke inhalation kills most of the people in terrestrial fires."
Saffire VI is set to be the last in its series, but then hopefully, Urban told News 5 the Moon is next.
"We hope to do some experiments on the lunar surface on a much smaller scale," he said. "That’s the next real big goal for us."
Clay LePard is a special projects reporter at News 5 Cleveland. Follow him on Twitter @ClayLePard or on Facebook Clay LePard News 5.
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