Spacecraft Fire Experiment II Explores How Fire Burns in Microgravity

NASA's Space Fire Experiment II, part of a series of space experiments that is investigating how fire spreads in microgravity, launched Monday on the private cargo spacecraft Cygnus.

The experiment, called Saffire, was conducted after the unmanned Cygnus spacecraft left the International Space Station, Space.com reported.

"The nine samples in the experiment kit include a cotton-fiberglass blend, Nomex, and the same acrylic glass that is used for spacecraft windows," according to a Space.com description of material that was burned in the Saffire-II.

Saffire-II's samples measured two inches wide by 12 inches long (5 by 30 centimeters), according to Space.com. In the final set of experiments, Saffire-III, a large-scale fire, will be ignited, similar to the one lit during the first set of tests, NASA officials said.

"Understanding how fire behaves in microgravity, and how different materials propagate flames in space is immensely important for the development of future spacecraft, subsystems, and instruments," NASA said in a statement on the experiment. "It also will help inform operational protocols for dealing with fire emergencies, particularly when astronauts do not have the ability to exit a spacecraft or quickly return to Earth."

The first experiment was conducted in a half-meter wide by one-meter deep enclosure, consisting of flow duct and an avionics bay, according to NASA.

"Inside the flow duct, the cotton-fiberglass blend burn sample measured 0.4 meters wide by one meter long," the space agency said. "When commanded by Orbital ATK and Saffire ground controllers operating from Dulles, Virginia, it was ignited by a hot wire. Previous to this experiment, the largest fire experiment that had been conducted in space is about the size of an index card."

Gary Ruff, a team member on the Saffire project, said the test could go a long way to helping make space travel safer, according to the website Phys.org.

"A spacecraft fire is one of the greatest crew safety concerns for NASA and the international space exploration community," Ruff said.

The experiments hopes to discover more about how fire spreads and grows in space along with which fabrics and material will catch fire and burn in microgravity, according to Phys.org.

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