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NASA to Conduct Experiments With Fire in Space

15 June 2016 02:18 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. A US unmanned Cygnus cargo ship has detached from the International Space Station (ISS) to carry out tests with fire in space, NASA announced Tuesday, APA reports quoting Sputnik.

The experiments will be conducted on board of the ship several hours after undocking from the ISS Unity module. One experiment is aimed at determining how big fires grow outside of the Earth's atmosphere.

China's Shenzhou-9 manned spacecraft, left, conducts docking with the Tiangong-1 space lab module.

The Spacecraft Fire Experiment (Saffire) will take place when the unmanned ship reaches a safe distance from the ISS and will not pose a danger to astronauts, NASA stressed.

NASA specialists will ignite a fire in a module containing a 38-inch by 19-inch (97 cm by 49 cm) cotton-and-fiberglass material sample, and monitor its behavior remotely.

The experiment will begin with igniting the sample. Air flowing through ducts will fan the fire, which is expected to burn for about 20 minutes. Scientists want to find out how microgravity influences the growth of fire, whether the force will limit flames, and how materials burn.