NASA does a lot of cool things, even with the pittance of a budget the government gives them. During a press call today, the space agency announced that with the help of research partners they are send a number of experiments into orbit. But the real kicker is is the HUGE announcement made at the tail end of standard science stuffs.
NASA will be setting a “large scale fire” in the vacuum of space. I’ve watched enough science fiction to understand that fire is a very, very bad thing to happen inside a spaceship. NASA seems to be on my level as they want to test just what would happen in the case of a space disaster goes down.
They will be using an expendable spacecraft –we have those?– to see what really happens. One of the supply ships that docks on the station will be used after it unloads all its cargo. This Spacecraft Fire Experiment-I (Saffire-1) will see a small box with some cotton-fiberglass composite ignite and burn up.
Co-investigator Gary Ruff stated that,
“Understanding fire in space has been the focus of many experiments over the years.”
It should be noted that this isn’t the first time a fire has been lit in space, but all previous experiments have been very small, around a centimeter in size. This experiment will show a realistic size fire.
Visit NASA for more information on this experiment.
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