THE FLUIDS AND COMBUSTION FACILITY AND FIRST PAYLOADS, THE MULTIUSER DROPLET COMBUSTION APPARATUS AND THE LIGHT MICROSCOPY MODULE: ENABLING RESEARCH ON THE ISS

摘要

The Fluids and Combustion Facility (FCF) is an International Space Station (ISS) research facility designed to support physical and biological research and exploration-related technology experiments in space. The FCF consists of two modular, reconfigurable racks called the Combustion Integrated Rack (CIR) and the Fluids Integrated Rack (FIR). The CIR can accommodate experiments that address critical needs in the areas of spacecraft fire safety (i.e., fire prevention, detection and suppression), flame spread, sooting, in-situ resource utilization, environmental monitoring and materials synthesis. The FIR can accommodate experiments that address critical needs for advanced life support (i.e., air revitalization, water reclamation, etc.), power, propulsion, and spacecraft thermal control systems. Specific investigations could include boiling heat transfer, multiphase flow, and liquid/vapor evaporation/condensation. The initial payload in the CIR is the Multi-User Droplet Combustion Apparatus (MDCA), which will perform the Flame Extinguishment in Microgravity experiment (FLEX). MDCA consists of two major components: a Chamber Insert Assembly and an Avionics Package. The initial FIR payload is the Light Microscopy Module (LMM), which will perform the Constrained Vapor Bubble (CVB) experiment. The LMM is an automated, fully motorized sub-rack mini-facility based on the Leica RXA microscope.