2015 Volume 32 Issue 4 Pages 320402-
A research project relating fire safety in space, FLARE (Flammability Limits at Reduced Gravity Experiment), is briefly introduced in the article. The project is aiming at proposal of new fire safety standard for screening material intended to use in spacecraft, which is promoted by JAXA as a high-priority project utilizing ISS (International Space Station). Major efforts in the project are made for building up a formula to allow quantitative estimation of solid material flammability limit under microgravity (MLOC) based on Limiting Oxygen Index (LOI) according to ISO 4589-2. The formula will be verified by ISS flight experiments at the end of the project period and, then, is expected to be included as a key element in the new fire safety standard. Further, some potential advantages of the new standard such as shift from Pass/Fail test to index method, allowing use of available material flammability data as LOI values, and potential reduction of cost for material screening, are emphasized under comparison with NASA-STD-6001B, which is often used for screening material for space use. The project team consists of members from JAXA, NASA, ESA and eight (8) universities from all over the world and the role of individual member to reach the goal are summarized.
