NASA will arrange a controlled fire in the space on the ship Cygnus

How would this may sound strange, but NASA is really going to start a fire in space. Make it planned for the Cygnus spacecraft. Naturally, scientists and engineers are planning something like this is not for fun and not for show (although the show will in any case). Arson is necessary in order to study the dynamics of fire in a space ship which is in open space.

Until now, the fire lit in space (meaning not in outer space, and on the ship), but it was a small flame. And in order to know how it will behave in a fire on a spaceship, you need to burn the ship. Fire arrange with a special box with flammable material inside.

Previous "fires" were the size of a maximum of 10 x 10 centimeters. It is not possible to simulate a fire occurrence in the real world. On Earth, the fires in order to study their dynamics satisfied in buildings, airplanes, ships, even mine. Few is what would happen if the lights spaceship. What team in this case? What will happen? Unknown.

The experiment was called SAFFIRE, and consists of three stages. Steps 1 and 3 - a series of samples of size 15 fires, 7 and 37 inches. The experiment will be carried out in the box where the air will be fed to the samples could burn. Duration of ignition - from 15 to 20 minutes. Scientists have set fire to the samples, to observe the spread of fire in the almost total absence of gravity. Experts want to know whether there is a restriction on the size of the flame in such circumstances, and what would be the dynamics of the "fire."

Operators will give the command "Burn!" Only after the spacecraft has completed its task, to deliver cargo to the ISS. Next Cygnus retire at a certain distance from the station, and only then set fire to NASA dangerous goods. Data collection is performed using a large number of different sensors. Information will be collected on oxygen, carbon dioxide, temperature, pressure. Through surveillance cameras will be carried out in real-time mode.

It is also planned to install two cameras and a number of radiometric instruments. The authors of the idea believe that the spacecraft will not be completely destroyed, and will be able to move a fire on board. Observational data will be compressed and sent to Earth. The ship will be in orbit for several days to transfer all the stored information.

Source: geektimes.ru/post/272792/