Astronaut Scott Kelly configures UC San Diego-led experiment aboard the International Space Station

Wayne Wright, Tracy Neff, Scott Kelly, Jennifer Storck, astronaut Mike Fossum and Sharon Reinke met at the Johnson Space Flight Center in December 2014 to train Kelly to use the fluids and combustion experiment hardware on the space station.

Credits: NASA

It’s not every day that researchers at UC San Diego can enlist a NASA astronaut to tweak their experimental set-up, but when duty calls, Scott Kelly is at the ready.  

 

The astronaut, who returned to Earth two weeks ago following a one-year mission aboard the International Space Station, made crucial adjustments during his mission to an experiment led by Forman Williams, a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at the University of California, San Diego. Williams’ Flame Extinguishment Experiment (FLEX) study – one of several microgravity experiments being run on the ISS’s Destiny Laboratory – is an effort to learn more about so-called cool-burning flames, which could lead to the production of safer spacecraft as well as cleaner, more efficient engines for vehicles back on earth.

Kelly spent two consecutive days configuring test hardware to perform test points for the FLEX system. He also replaced needles, a fiber arm, igniter tips and reservoirs in support of the experiments.

All the FLEX experiments take place in the ISS’s Multiuser Droplet Combustion Apparatus, which can generate and ignite droplets from different fuels in different atmospheric conditions. The chamber is crammed with sensors and equipped with video cameras that record experiments. It’s located inside an experimental facility called the Combustion Integrated Rack, which is roughly the size of a 5.5-foot bookcase, weighs close to 560 lbs and records the data for transmission back to Earth.

Researchers believe that cool flames – which were discovered during an experiment aboard the ISS in 2014 – are the result of elementary chemical reactions that do not have the time to develop around burning fuel droplets on earth, where they can only exist for a very short period of time. The FLEX study seeks to learn more about how quickly fuel burns, the conditions required for soot to form, and how mixtures of fuels evaporate before burning. The microgravity environment of the ISS, where there is no buoyancy, makes it possible to provide a sufficient amount of test time required to support the chemical process that creates cool flames.
Press release from NASA: 
http://www.nasa.gov/feature/kelly-contributed-to-fluid-and-combustion-research

Related story:  Researchers discover cool-burning flames in space

Oustanding graduates: Sam Avery

Sam Avery was standing on the ceiling. But to him, it seemed like everyone else was upside down. “You think the ceiling is the floor,” he said. “Your mind completely agrees it’s the floor. It’s one of the craziest things I’ve ever experienced.” Avery was on his second flight on a special NASA plane with UC San Diego’s zero-gravity team. They were investigating how biofuels burn in space, at the suggestion of mechanical engineering professor Forman Williams. It was Avery’s second stint on the team, this time as captain. Avery is headed for graduate school at Stanford. He’d like to start his own company some day.

This Jacobs School alum predicts wildfire behavior

Jacobs School alum Michael Gollner was recently featured on Discovery Channel Canada's Daily Planet, where he explained fire tornadoes and spoke about his research. Gollner was a graduate student in the research group of Professor Forman Williams, where he studied fire behavior, including in warehouses. From a press release from the University of Maryland, where Gollner is now an assistant professor:

Gollner demonstrated several experiments he and his group use to predict wildfire behavior, including extreme events such as the fire tornado, also known as a fire whirl.

"There are still so many things we can discover and learn that will save people's lives," he explains in the segment. "[We're] trying to understand how the fire actually jumps between...fuels and spreads and grows...And if we can understand that, we might be better able to predict where the fire is going to go."

You can watch the segment on Gollner's research here.

Gollner has been keeping himself busy. Here are a few things he has going on, according to a recent email:

• ongoing NSF grant with collaborators at UCSD on real-time wildland fire predictions (http://wifire.ucsd.edu)
• another ongoing grant with WPI and DHS on firefighter safety in green or sustainable buildings (http://www.gollnerfire.com/2013/09/25/prof-gollner-and-marshall-receive-department-of-homeland-security-grant-on-green-buildings/)
• a seed grant looking into wildfire emissions from the University of Maryland (http://www.gollnerfire.com/2014/03/17/tracking-the-long-term-cost-of-wildfire-emissions/)
• An NFPA Research Foundation project on Hybrid Fire Suppression Systems just published: http://www.gollnerfire.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/Hybrid-Suppression-Systems-Final-Report-2.pdf
• I'm offering a new wildland fire course in the fall (http://www.gollnerfire.com/2013/12/18/new-wildland-fire-course-to-be-offered-in-fall-2014/).