A Challenge: Stopping a Fire in Space

Tragically, the Apollo 1 crew was killed by a fire in the cockpit—during a ground test. Even though that incident didn’t take place in space, it highlighted the problems of fire in space travel.

Fire on Mir

NASA and others received another reminder during the joint American-Soviet missions to the Mir space station. During one mission, a fire broke out on Mir. The crew was unable to contain the fire, and they were blocked from escaping to their Soyuz spacecraft—thick smoke was in the way. That fire went out on its own…luckily.

As astronauts prepare to return to the moon, and to possibly travel on missions to Mars, the problem of fire is being addressed again.

Orion: Fighting fire on a lunar flight

Putting out fires…that don’t behave the same as on Earth

NASA is now working on plans to stop fires aboard its new manned spacecraft, Orion.

Fire in space is different. Without gravity, it tends to form into spheres. A fire extinguisher in space would need to put out the fire…and not damage critically important equipment inside the spacecraft.

The current plan for dealing with a fire aboard the International Space Station is, largely, evacuate. This wouldn’t be an option for a moon-bound crew aboard Orion. When you can’t fell a fire, you must fight it.

Developing a space-age fire extinguisher

The company NASA hired to develop a fire-fighting system, ADA Technologies, is looking into using a foam of a oxygen-nitrogen mix to suffocate fires. In any case, they’ll have to come up with something that works.