- Author
-
Friedman, R.
|
Sacksteder, K. R.
|
Urban, D.
- Title
- Risks, Designs, and Research for Fire Safety in Spacecraft. NASA Technical Memorandum.
- Coporate
- NASA Lewis Research Center, Cleveland, OH
Sverdrup Technology, Inc., Brook Park, OH
- Sponsor
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Washington, DC
- Report
-
NASA TM 105317; E-6672; WU-323-53-62,
1991,
20 p.
- Distribution
- Available from National Technical Information Service
- Contract
- NASA-CONTRACT-NAS3-25266
- Book or Conf
- National Fire Protection Association. Fall Meeting. November 19, 1991,
Quebec, Canada,
1991
- Keywords
-
spacecraft
|
aerospace safety
|
warning systems
|
fire extinguishers
|
flammability
|
reduced gravity
|
risks
|
safety
|
weightlessness
|
aerospace environment
- Abstract
- Current fire protection for spacecraft relies mainly on fire prevention through the use of nonflammable materials and strict storage controls of other materials. The Shuttle also has smoke detectors and fire extinguishers, using technology similar to aircraft practices. While experience has shown that the current fire proteciton is adequate, future improvements in fire-safety technology to meet the challenges of long-duration space missions, such as the Space Station Freedom, are essential. All spacecraft fire-protection systems, however, must deal with the unusual combustion characteristics and operational problems in the low-gravity environment. The paper discusses the features of low-gravity combustion that affect spacecraft fire safety, and the issues in fire protection for Freedom that must be addressed eventually to provide effective and conservative fire-protection systems.