It’s been more than 10 years since has been purposely exposing International space stations (ISS) to fire. NASA is experimenting with the nature of fire and ways to extinguish it for the betterment of humanity. The project leader of one such experiment Forman Williams said-
“We hope to gain a better knowledge of droplet burning, improved spacecraft fire safety and ideas for more efficient utilization of liquid fuels on Earth,”
We all are well aware of the fact that fire cannot start out of anywhere in space as there’s no oxygen and also the vacuum. Which is an easy phenomenon in gravity, when heated air rises and expands, making fire shape like teardrops.
However, the fire inside an ISS is possible due to the presence of microgravity as it is air-filled, but the flames are spheres. Dan Dietrich, FLEX project scientist at NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Ohio said-
“In space, molecular diffusion draws oxygen to the flame and combustion products away from the flame at a rate 100 times slower than the buoyant flow on Earth,”
The image showed above was taken in ISS’s Combustion Integration Rack, a cluster of flame envelopes. Fire is a rapid process taking place in the presence of oxygen but in microgravity, where there’s a depleted amount of oxygen, fire is not able to burn naturally. The flames explode in every direction in search of oxygen and hence the above process takes place.
I think now you have a better understanding of how fire, which is deadly at times, can take breathtaking forms in space, to which I’ll say-
Even the deadliest of beast
Can be tamed
All it needs
Is to find Beauty.
I’m into poems, I hope you won’t mind. Science and literature are the same I feel, anyways NASA is carrying out its missions to make engines more efficient and less- polluting gases for the future.
