High above the Earth, astronauts aboard the International Space Station are playing with fire — very carefully. By lighting controlled fires and watching them burn, the Expedition 35 team is learning how to prevent accidental blazes from breaking out aboard the station and other spacecraft — a nightmare scenario that could put not only lives, but the very future of human spaceflight at risk. “We can certainly make things not flammable on Earth, but in space, that changes,” said Dr. Paul Ferkul, a NASA scientist whose experiment recently found that a fire-resistant fabric similar to astronaut clothing actually ignites in space.
via The Verge
Image: Paul Ferkul (NASA/BASS)
