Related links: UCB Microgravity Combustion Lab Carlos Fernandez-Pello NASA ISS Science NASA Glenn Research Center

Space Shuttle Discovery carries MSC Project On Friday August 10th the Space Shuttle Discovery was launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida carrying an experiment in the cargo bay from the Microgravity Smoldering Combustion (MSC) project. The MSC project is an on-going research program developed jointly by the Microgravity Combustion Labs here at U.C. Berkeley, under the leadership of Professor Carlos Fernandez-Pello, and by an engineering team at the NASA Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio, under the leadership of Dr. David Urban. To date the MSC experiment has flown twice aboard the Space Shuttle, and one more flight is scheduled for October of this year. Shown in the photographs below are the MSC flight hardware, flown in the cargo bay of the Space Shuttle. The two major components are the test section assembly (left), instrumented for thermal and ultrasound analysis, and the overall flight assembly (right) which houses the test section.

(Click on photos for larger images) Smoldering combustion is a form of nonflaming burning that occurs in porous materials such as packing foam, and electrical wire bundles. Smolder is a serious fire-safety problem because of the toxicity of the products and the potential to erupt into flames. The danger is even greater in space, where the crew cannot flee a burning space facility. The MSC experiment will provide critical data on the behavior of smoldering combustion both on Earth and in the reduced-gravity environment of a spacecraft.

Return to ME Home
Comments to slavin@me.berkeley.edu
Latest update: August 16, 2001
© 2001 UC Regents