Microgravity

The potential for investigating combustion at the limits of flammability, and the implications for spacecraft fire safety, led to the Structures Of Flame Balls At Low Lewis-number (SOFBALL) experiment flown twice aboard the Space Shuttle in 1997. The success there led to reflight on STS-107 Research 1 mission plarned for 2002. Theory does not always predict behavior, thus the need for experiments. Three different published chemical reaction models (lines) for hydrogen-airflame balls proved to be quite different from what was observed (dots) during SOFBALL tests in space. The principal investigator is Dr. Paul Ronney of the University of Southern California, Los Angeles. Glenn Research in Cleveland, OH, manages the project.