On Tuesday, NASA's commercial partner Orbital ATK will launch its Cygnus cargo spacecraft. The ship - filled with supplies and science experiments - will dock with the International Space Station (ISS) and ensure that the crew has enough food, water and inventory. However, after the supplies are replenished, the Cygnus will move on to the next part of its mission: getting set one fire.
The strange event is a part of NASA's Saffire-1 experiment, which involves igniting flammable material inside of the Cygnus spacecraft with the goal of understanding how fires spread across the craft while in space. Despite NASA's years of experience in the industry, the agency isn't very familiar with how fires behave in microgravity conditions.
Previous fires have all been less than 4 inches in length and width, whereas the Saffire fire will ignite material more than 3 feet long and 1 foot wide.
"Understanding fire in space has been the focus of many experiments over the years," said Gary Ruff, an aerospace engineer at NASA's Glenn Research Center, adding that although "small, centimeter-sized fires have been lit in space before, to really understand fire, you've got to look at a more realistic size."
NASA assures that the experiment will not pose any danger to the astronauts on the ISS, as it will take place when the Cygnus is around four hours away from it. Furthermore, the spacecraft will be much lower in orbit.
"The crew won't really have any interaction or knowledge about what's going on while they're doing [the experiment]," Ruff said.
The fire will be monitored with temperature, oxygen and carbon dioxide sensors, which will record the fire's data while cameras film the experiment. The fire is expected to last approximately 20 minutes and after it dies down, the remnants of the Cygnus will plummet into the Earth's atmosphere and disintegrate.
Prior to the Saffire experiment, the Cygnus will deliver numerous tools for science experiments including a 3-D printer, adhesive Gecko Grippers and the Meteor, a device that will help the ISS team determine the composition of meteors entering the Earth's atmosphere.
The launch will take place at 11 p.m. ET on Tuesday, March 22 from Cape Canaveral, Fla.
