NASA sparks largest space fire in microgravity

US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has ignited the biggest ever fire in space to learn more about the needed safety percussion if such fire breaks out in microgravity environment.

The fire was just recently sparked in a controlled way in NASA’s specially-designed chamber on board an unmanned Orbital ATK Cygnus cargo vehicle as part of the Spacecraft Fire Experiment-1, also known as Saffire-1 (short for safe fire), in a safe distance from the International Space Station.

“If something bad happens in space, you can't just leave the room and wait for someone to take care of it. If a fire starts, you have to be able to detect it, put it out, return all of your equipment to the way it was, and continue on your mission,” said Gary Ruff, an aerospace engineer at NASA’s Glenn Research Center and Saffire project manager.

To do the experiment, scientists let a strip of cotton-fiberglass, about 40 centimeters (16 inches) long and one meter (3.28 feet) wide, burn for about eight minutes. The flames, unlike their counterparts back on the Earth, moved gently from one end of the combustible material to the other.

Flames behave differently in outer space, where gravity is zero or minimal, as they do not taper like those of a candle on a dinner table. Without having a natural convection, space flames are blobby and spherical and, instead of rising, they tend to spread in different directions. The fire, if ignited on a spacecraft, will just follow its ventilation system.

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