A Cygnus cargo ship launching toward the International Space Station (ISS) this weekend will carry an experiment designed to improve fire safety on moon and Mars missions.
Called SoFIE (Solid Fuel Ignition and Extinction), the experiment is the latest in a series of in-orbit investigations that look at how fire behaves in microgravity. SoFIE is part of a larger haul of science, supplies and hardware flying on Northrop Grumman's Cygnus NG-17 resupply mission, which is scheduled to launch at 12:39 p.m. EST (1739 GMT) on Saturday (Feb. 19).
"What we hope to do is inform future missions on material flammability as they work prototype designs for future spacesuits, cabins and habitats and predict how those materials would burn in lunar, Martian or other environments," Paul Ferkul, SoFIE project scientist at NASA's Glenn Research Center in Ohio, told Space via e-mail.