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By NASA
5 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
A fire burns in Fishlake National Forest, as part of the Fall 2023 FASMEE prescribed burn. NASA/ Grace Weikert Background
Fire is a natural occurrence in many ecosystems and can promote ecological health. However, wildfires are growing in scope and occurring more often than in the past. Among other causes this is due to human-caused climate impacts and the expansion of communities into areas with wildland vegetation. These blazes continue to significantly harm communities, public health, and natural ecosystems. NASA is leveraging cutting-edge science and technology to better understand wildland fire behavior and provide valuable tools for fire policy, response, and mitigation.
NASA’s Stake in Wildfire
NASA’s contributions to wildland fire management span decades. This includes research to better understand the role fire plays in Earth’s dynamic atmosphere, and airborne and spaceborne sensors to analyze fire lifecycles. Much of this research and technology is still used by wildfire agencies across the globe today. NASA is building on this research and technology development with the Wildland Fire Management Initiative (WMI).
WMI leverages expertise across the Agency in space technology, science, and aeronautics to improve wildfire research and response. Through this effort, NASA and its partners will continue to provide tools and technologies for improved predictive fire modeling, risk assessment, fire prevention, suppression and post-fire recovery operations. NASA’s WMI aims to equip responders with improved tools for managing these fires
How NASA is Tackling Wildfire
NASA is collaborating with other government agencies, academia, and commercial industries to build a concept of operations for the future of wildland fire management. This means identifying gaps in current wildland fire technologies and procedures and laying out clear solutions to address those challenges.
NASA will perform a demonstration of wildland fire technologies – including X – in the coming years.
To provide a well-rounded toolkit for improving wildland operations, NASA and is tackling every aspect of wildland fire response. These efforts include:
Pre-Fire
Fuel fire maps with improved accuracy Tools that identify where and when safe, preventative burn treatments would be most effective Airspace management and safety technologies to enable mainstream use of uncrewed aircraft systems in prescribed burns Active Fire
Fire detection and tracking imagery Improved fire information management systems Models for changing fire conditions, including fire behavior, and wind and atmospheric tracking for quality forecasts Uncrewed aircraft and high-altitude balloons for real-time communications for fighting fires in harsh environments Uncrewed Aircraft Systems Traffic Management (UTM) to expand use of uncrewed aircraft systems in fire response, particularly in environments where traditional air traffic control technologies aren’t available An airspace awareness and communications system to enable remotely piloted aircraft to identify, monitor, and suppress wildfires 24 hours a day Post-Fire
Improved fire impact assessments, including fire severity, air and water quality, risks of landslides, debris flows, and burn scars Ground-based, airborne, and spaceborne observations to develop monitoring systems for air quality and map burn severity and develop and enhance models and predictions of post-fire hazards NASA’s Disasters Response Coordination System (DRCS) supports all three fire response aspects listed above. The DRCS, developed under the Agency’s Earth Science Division’s Disasters Program, provides decisional support to international and domestic operational response agencies. This support includes products for understanding wildfire movement and potential pathways, burn-area maps, and impacts of fire, ash, and smoke to population and critical infrastructure. DCRS tools also provide assessments of post-fire flooding and debris flow susceptibility.
NASA’s Investment in New Wildland Fire Technologies
NASA’s WMI offers grants, contracts, and prizes to small businesses, research institutions, and other wildland technology innovators. Some related technology development activities underway include:
Testing communications technologies for incident response teams in areas with no cellphone coverage via a high-altitude balloon 60,000 feet above ground level Developing wildfire detection systems and instruments for crewed and uncrewed aircraft Funding early-stage technology development for remote sensing instruments and sensor systems Developing and flight testing integrated, compact systems for small spacecraft and other platforms for autonomous detection, location tracking, and data collection of transient smoke plumes, early wildfires and other events Licensing technologies relevant to wildland fire management and hosting wildland fire webinars to promote NASA technology licensing Partners
The NASA Wildland Fire Management Initiative team collaborates with industry, academia, philanthropic institutions, and other government agencies for a more fire-resilient future. These include:
U.S. Forest Service The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration The Federal Aviation Administration The Department of Homeland Security The Department of Defense The National Wildfire Coordinating Group WMI Deliverables
Through these combined efforts, NASA aims to address urgent wildland fire management challenges and ensure communities are better prepared for wildland fires. NASA will continue to expand partnerships within wildland fire management agencies for technology development and adoptions.
For more information, email: Agency-WildlandFiresInitiative@mail.nasa.gov
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By NASA
NASA’s Pegasus barge delivers the SLS (Space Launch System) rocket’s core stage for the 2022 Artemis I mission to the turn basin at Kennedy Space Center in Florida in April 2021. Credits: NASA/Michael Downs Media are invited in late July to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida to see progress on the agency’s SLS (Space Launch System) Moon rocket as preparations continue for the Artemis II test flight around the Moon.
Participants joining the multi-day events will see the arrival and unloading of the 212-foot-tall SLS core stage at the center’s turn basin before it is transported to the nearby Vehicle Assembly Building. The stage will arrive on NASA’s Pegasus barge from the agency’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, where it was manufactured and assembled.
Media also will see the twin pair of solid rocket boosters inside the Rotation, Processing, and Surge Facility at the spaceport, where NASA’s Exploration Ground Systems Program is processing the motor segments in preparation for rocket assembly. NASA and industry subject matter experts will be available to answer questions. At launch, the SLS rocket’s two solid rocket boosters and four RS-25 engines, located at the base of its core stage, will produce 8.8 million pounds of thrust to send the first crewed mission of the Artemis campaign around the Moon.
Media interested in participating must apply for credentials at:
https://media.ksc.nasa.gov
To receive credentials, international media must apply by Friday, June 28, and U.S. citizens must apply by Thursday, July 5.
Credentialed media will receive a confirmation email upon approval, along with additional information about the specific date for the activities when they are finalized. NASA’s media accreditation policy is available online. For questions about accreditation, please email ksc-media-accreditat@mail.nasa.gov. For other questions, please contact Kennedy’s newsroom at: 321-867-2468.
Para obtener información sobre cobertura en español en el Centro Espacial Kennedy o si desea solicitar entrevistas en español, comuníquese con Antonia Jaramillo o Messod Bendayan a: antonia.jaramillobotero@nasa.gov o messod.c.bendayan@nasa.gov.
The approximately 10-day Artemis II flight will test NASA’s SLS rocket, Orion spacecraft, and ground systems for the first time with astronauts and will pave the way for lunar surface missions, including landing the first woman, first person of color, and first international partner astronaut on the Moon.
Learn more about Artemis at:
www.nasa.gov/artemis/
-end-
Rachel Kraft
Headquarters, Washington
281-358-1100
rachel.h.kraft@nasa.gov
Tiffany Fairley/Antonia Jaramillo
Kennedy Space Center, Florida
321-867-2468
tiffany.l.fairley@nasa.gov/antonia.jaramillobotero@nasa.gov
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Last Updated Jun 14, 2024 LocationNASA Headquarters Related Terms
Artemis 2 Artemis Humans in Space Kennedy Space Center Space Launch System (SLS) View the full article
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By European Space Agency
Image: ESA astronaut candidate Rosemary Coogan lighting a fire during winter survival training in the snowy mountains of the Spanish Pyrenees as part of her basic astronaut training. View the full article
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By NASA
3 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
A sample of fabric burns inside an uncrewed Cygnus cargo craft during a previous Spacecraft Fire Safety Experiment investigation, Saffire-IV.Credit: NASA NASA recently concluded the final mission of its Spacecraft Fire Safety Experiment, or Saffire, putting a blazing end to an eight-year series of investigations that provided insights into fire’s behavior in space.
The final experiment, Saffire-VI, launched to the International Space Station in August 2023 and concluded its mission on Jan. 9, when the Northrop Grumman Cygnus spacecraft it was flying on safely burned up during planned re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere.
Dr. David Urban, principal investigator, and Dr. Gary Ruff, project manager at NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, have led the Saffire project from Northeast Ohio since its initial spark in 2016. Throughout the experiment series, researchers gathered data NASA will use to enhance mission safety and inform future spacecraft and spacesuit designs.
“How big a fire does it take for things to get bad for a crew?” Urban said. “This kind of work is done for every other inhabited structure here on Earth – buildings, planes, trains, automobiles, mines, submarines, ships – but we hadn’t done this research for spacecraft until Saffire.”
Like previous Saffire experiments, Saffire-VI took place inside a unit on an uninhabited Cygnus spacecraft that had already departed from the space station, ensuring the safety of the orbiting laboratory and a more representative flight environment. However, this final iteration of the experiment was unique because of the higher oxygen concentration and lower pressure generated in the test unit to simulate the conditions within crewed spacecraft.
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NASA ignited the final set of space fire experiments for Saffire-VI inside Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus cargo spacecraft at the end of the NG-19 resupply mission to the International Space Station. Saffire, or Spacecraft Fire Safety Experiment, was a series of six investigations that provided insights into how fires grow and spread in space. This research is especially important as it will inform future spacecraft designs bound for the Moon and Mars. Video credit: NASA During the 19 Saffire-VI experiment runs, the NASA team and counterparts at Northrop Grumman made various adjustments to air conditions. They then ignited a flame on materials such as plexiglass, cotton, Nomex, and Solid Inflammability Boundary at Low-Speed fabrics. A bead-lined wire inside the unit ignited the materials.
“The Saffire flow unit is a wind tunnel. We’re pushing air through it,” Ruff said. “Once test conditions are set, we run electrical current through a thin wire, and the materials ignite.”
Cameras inside allowed the team to observe the flame while remote sensors outside the Saffire flow unit collected data about what was happening in the Cygnus vehicle. The images and information were gathered in real-time before being sent to Earth for scientists to analyze.
“You’ve got a heat release rate and a rate of release of combustion products,” Ruff said. “You can take those as model input and predict what will happen in a vehicle.”
The next decade of exploration and science missions will see astronauts flying deeper into space and to locations that have yet to be explored. Though the Saffire experiments have been extinguished, NASA has learned valuable lessons and gathered mountains of data on fire behavior that will help the agency design safer spacecraft and accomplish its ambitious future missions.
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By NASA
NASA/Danny Nowlin Clouds of white vapor pile up at NASA’s Stennis Space Center in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi during a full-duration, 500-second hot fire of an RS-25 certification engine Jan. 17, 2024. This test series is critical for future flights of NASA’s SLS (Space Launch System) rocket in support of the Artemis campaign.
During the Jan. 17 test, operators followed a “test like you fly” approach, firing the engine for the same amount of time – almost eight-and-a-half minutes (500 seconds) – needed to launch SLS and at power levels ranging between 80% to 113%.
Image Credit: NASA/Danny Nowlin
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