Solid Fuel Ignition and Extinction

Facility Description

The Solid Fuel Ignition and Extinction (SoFIE) payload provides hardware that enables the study and characterization of the ignition and flammability of solid spacecraft materials (fuels) in practical geometries and realistic atmospheric conditions. SoFIE is an experiment insert for the existing Combustion Integrated Rack (CIR). The CIR chamber provides a level of containment and permits testing at variable oxygen concentrations and pressures representative of current and planned NASANational Aeronautics and Space Administration Space Exploration Atmospheres (SEA). A variety of fuels are to be burned, including flat sheets, cylinders, spheres, and thick slabs. While SoFIE initially meets the requirements of five investigations, is intended for use by any researchers who proposes related solid combustion studies in the future.