The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) recently concluded the last mission of the Spacecraft Fire Safety Experiment (SAFFIRE), capping off an eight-year series of investigations. One last experiment"saffire-vi"Launched to the International Space Station in August 2023 and ending its mission on January 9, the Northrop Grumman Cygnus spacecraft it was aboard burned up safely during its planned re-entry into Earth's atmosphere.
The Saffire series of experiments, led by NASA's Glenn Research Center, ended in the last mission, Saffire-VI. It investigates fire behavior in space to improve the safety and design of future spacecraft. The experiments provide valuable data for safer deep space exploration.
Dr. D**id Urban, principal investigator at NASA's Cleveland Glen Research Center, and Dr. Gary Ruff, program manager, have led the Saffire project in northeastern Ohio since it was first launched in 2016. Throughout the experimental series, the data collected by the researchers will be used by NASA to improve mission safety and inform future spacecraft and spacesuit designs.
Investigation during the previous spacecraft fire safety experiment"saffire-iv", a fabric sample inside an unmanned Cygnus cargo spacecraft is burned. Source**: NASA.
How big of a fire will it take for the crew to get bad? "Urban said. "This kind of work is carried out against all the other inhabited buildings on the planet - buildings, planes, trains, cars, mines, submarines, ships - but before Saffire, we did not have this kind of research on spacecraft. "
Like previous Saffire experiments, Saffire-VI was carried out within a unit on the uninhabited Cygnus spacecraft that had left the space station to ensure a safe and more representative flight environment in the orbital laboratory. However, the final iteration of this experiment was unique in that the oxygen produced in the test setup was higher and the pressure was lower, simulating conditions inside a manned spacecraft.
At the end of the NG-19 resupply mission to the International Space Station, NASA ignited the last set of space fire experiments for Saffire-VI inside Northrop Grumman's Cygnus cargo spacecraft. Saffire, or Spacecraft Fire Safety Experiment, is a series of six investigations designed to gain insight into how fires breed and spread in space. This research is particularly important because it will inform the design of future spacecraft to the Moon and Mars. Source**: NASA.
Over the course of 19 SAFFIRE-VI trials, the NASA team and Northrop Grumman's counterparts made various adjustments to the air conditions. They then lit flames on materials such as plexiglass, cotton, nomex, and low-velocity solid flammable border fabrics. The beaded wires inside the device ignited the materials.
The Saffire mobile device is a wind tunnel. We push the air through it,"Ruff said. "Once the test conditions are set, we apply electricity through a thin wire and the material ignites"。
While remote sensors outside the Saffire mobile device collect data about what is happening inside the Cygnus vehicle, cameras inside the vehicle allow the research team to observe the flames. The images and information are collected in real-time and then sent to Earth for analysis by scientists.
In the experiment, a heat release rate and a combustion product release rate are obtained"Ruff said. "You can use this data as input to the model, what happens in the vehicle. "
In the next decade of exploration and scientific missions, astronauts will fly deeper into space and unexplored sites. Although"saffire"The experiment is over, but NASA has learned valuable experience and collected a lot of data on the behavior of the fire, which will help the agency design safer spacecraft and complete its ambitious future missions.
Compilation**: scitechdaily