# Fire in space / spacecraft **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 21, 2003, 10:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fire-in-space-spacecraft/156518 "2003-02-21T10:48:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Puzzle\_Piece](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/fbc32d/32.png) [@Puzzle\_Piece](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Puzzle_Piece)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2003, 10:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fire-in-space-spacecraft/156518/1 "2003-02-21T10:48:29Z")
I recall reading somewhere that if you were to light a candle inside a space shuttle, the flame would be spherical and pale white, and that this among other things is one of the problems with firefighting in space, that it is so hard to spot. Is this true? My physics teacher had never heard of anything like it. Cheers ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2003, 11:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fire-in-space-spacecraft/156518/2 "2003-02-21T11:06:00Z")
Howstuffworks has a [nifty picture](http://www.howstuffworks.com/fire1.htm) of a flame in microgravity (near the bottom.) And NASA’s [Microgravity Combustion Science Research Program page](http://www1.msfc.nasa.gov/NEWMSFC/fire.html) has a lot of info as well. ---
**Author:** ![Nanoda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Nanoda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nanoda)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2003, 12:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fire-in-space-spacecraft/156518/3 "2003-02-21T12:23:02Z")
It would indeed be spherical… although zero-g fire has some other odd properties too. [Fighting fire in orbit](http://www.popsci.com/popsci/aviation/article/0,12543,411061,00.html) ain’t something new though: on February 23, 1997 there was a fire in Mir’s emergency oxygen generator (the main system having gone off-line a few months previously). That one was issuing from the casing of a lithium-perchloride oxygen canister. Accounts appear to differ, with the early reports saying it was a 90 second cigarette lighter deal, with an, ahem, “amendment” to a 14 minute blow-torch emergency after the American crew member returned. (I’m a fan of the Russian space program, but I think I know who’s telling the tall ones here) ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2003, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fire-in-space-spacecraft/156518/4 "2003-02-21T15:34:59Z")
Lithium perchlorate. [Here’s](http://www.floridatoday.com/space/explore/stories/1997/030897a.htm) a story on the fire. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2003, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fire-in-space-spacecraft/156518/5 "2003-02-22T15:28:42Z")
The Master Speaks: [If you lit a match in zero gravity, would it smother in its own smoke?](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a3_360.html) ---
**Author:** ![Nanoda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Nanoda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nanoda)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2003, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fire-in-space-spacecraft/156518/6 "2003-02-23T02:33:58Z")
Perchlorate, perchloride, sodium, sulphur, geez people are picky about chemistry. ;-p ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2003, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fire-in-space-spacecraft/156518/7 "2003-02-23T05:24:39Z")
Johnny was the chemist’s son. But now he is no more. For what he thought was H[sub]2[/sub]O was H[sub]2[/sub]SO[sub]4[/sub]. :eek: 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Nanoda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Nanoda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nanoda)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2003, 9:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fire-in-space-spacecraft/156518/8 "2003-02-23T09:29:34Z")
“Little Johnny’s dead and gone; his face will see no more…” I accidentally let on to my grade 7 chem teacher that I knew that rhyme… she made me recite it in front of the whole class. _Twice!_ Oh the humiliation. :o Lessee… must be relevant: I found this [paper](http://microgravity.grc.nasa.gov/combustion/pdf_files/whitaker.pdf) on fire suppression on the ISS. (with pics!) Points: as a last ditch deal they can depressurise a section, and both it and the shuttles have “fire suppression ports” where you hook up your extinguisher and it vents it right into the instrument package or what have you.