CAPE CANAVERAL, fla. — A space station supply ship is set to blast off Tuesday night with a commercial-quality 3-D printer and the makings for a large-scale fire.
Orbital ATK’s capsule, named Cygnus after the swan constellation, holds nearly 8,000 pounds of station supplies for NASA. One-fourth of that is scientific research.
An Atlas rocket provided by Centennial-based United Launch Alliance will provide the ride from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. Excellent weather is forecast for the 11:05 p.m. launch.
NASA will set a fire inside the trash-packed Cygnus ship, once it leaves the space station in May and is a safe distance away.
NASA project manager Gary Ruff said this blaze will be second in size only to the 1997 fire on the Russian Mir space station, which was caused by a defective oxygen-generating canister.
Researchers want to understand how a fire spreads in weightlessness. How fast and how big does it get?
The goal is to improve fire safety on future spacecraft. An electrical igniter will be used to light a yard-long cotton-fiberglass sheet inside a box. The burn should last 15 to 20 minutes, with a pair of cameras recording the flames and sensors making measurements. A week or so later, the capsule will burn up as planned over the Pacific. The test is called Saffire, short for Spacecraft Fire Experiment.
As for the 3-D printer, it’s an update to one launched to the space station in 2014. Northern California-based company Made In Space says the new printer is bigger and better.
The first printer created items no bigger than an iPhone. This new printer will churn out items as big as an iPad mini.
It will be controlled from the ground, with minimal input from the astronauts. The intention is to make 3-D items as needed for real-time use. The company also is leasing the printer for groups interested in creating customized 3-D items in space. Some of the items will be returned to Earth aboard SpaceX Dragon capsules, the company said.
