Find Out Why NASA Needs to Intentionally Set Fire Inside a Working Spacecraft

NASA is firing up a spacecraft and the scientists are igniting a spacecraft mid-flight, a first of its kind.

The agency set a device on fire aboard the Cygnus space cargo after the spacecraft departed the International Space Station (ISS) last June 14. The experiment is called the Spacecraft Fire Experiment of Saffire-1.

Before this attempt, the last known man-induced fire experiment in space burned a small index card-sized sample, according to a report by Space.com.

Saffire-1 experiment is being conducted by NASA to understand the behavior of fire in microgravity. Saffire-1 will be beneficial to the safety of astronauts in space.

"Fire safety will be a critical element as NASA progresses on the journey to Mars and begins to investigate deep space habitats for long duration missions," said an official of NASA in a press release.

According to NASA, Saffire-1 is a three-part experiment that will be conducted over the course of three flights of Orbital ATK's Cygnus cargo vehicle. With the experiment, the fire behavior can be observed in long duration flights in microgravity.

To perform the experiment, Saffire-1 aboard Cygnus is enclosed in a half a meter wide by one meter deep case with flow duct and avionics bay. The sample to be burned was placed inside the flow duct, which is a cotton-fiberglass material. The material is controlled through a hot wire that can be triggered by controllers in Virginia. To contain the fire, NASA's Glenn Research Center created a protective module.

Cygnus delivered goods to the ISS last March and together with its cargo, is the Saffire-1 experiment module, according to a report by Engadget.

This experiment is a first of its kind when it comes to scale. After the completion of data transmission from the Saffire-1 experiment, the Cygnus spacecraft, containing waste materials from the ISS, will initiate and burn during its re-entry into Earth's atmosphere.

NASA is currently waiting for data transmission from Cygnus.