Fluid Combustion Facility's
Combustion Integrated Rack Development Video
The United States Laboratory Module on the ISS will contain the Fluids
and Combustion Facility (FCF), designed and built at NASA Glenn Research
Center in Cleveland, Ohio. The FCF is being developed to accommodate
the unique challenges of working with fluids and combustion processes
in microgravity, as well as to provide services and capabilities comparable
to those found in traditional Earth-based laboratories.
Glenn was an ideal choice for this project because of their reputation
for award-winning research, particularly in the areas of fluids and
combustion. as well as their long-standing experience in developing
experiment hardware and world-class test facilities. Glenn engineers
and scientists have been involved in designing, producing, and managing
space-based hardware and facilities since the 1960's. As pioneers in
rocket research, they had tested high-energy propellants even before
the United States officially entered the space business. Glenn Research
Center advanced the propulsion technology that helped make space travel
possible.
The Center's unique Zero Gravity Research Facility and other drop towers
and laboratories were the source of foundational work in microgravity
research. NASA's Zero Gravity Trainer aircraft, the KC-135, operates
out of NASA Glenn several weeks each year in support of Glenn's ground-based
microgravity research. Some flights include astronauts participating
in crew training so they can have low-gravity experience with experiment
hardware and materials prior to shuttle missions. In all, these facilities
give Glenn a unique ability to develop and test microgravity experiments.
Glenn Research Center is NASA's center of excellence for fluid physics
and combustion science and has been responsible for 153 experiments
on 47 flights. In addition to providing the new Fluids and Combustion
Facility, they will be a major contributor to the investigations onboard
the FCF, in gloveboxes, and in other ISS facilities. A forerunner of
the FCF, the Glenn-developed Combustion-Module-1 (CM-1), which flew
onboard the Shuttle Columbia, STS-83, in April, 1997, laid the groundwork
for the combustion portion of the new Fluids and Combustion Facility
with several hardware innovations.
Description of the Facility
The Fluids and Combustion Facility (FCF) will occupy two powered racks
on the International Space Station (ISS). It will be a permanent modular,
multiuser facility to accommodate microgravity science experiments
onboard the ISS's U.S. Laboratory Module. FCF will support NASA Human
Exploration and Development of Space program objectives requiring
sustained, systematic research in the disciplines of fluid physics
and combustion science. The two disciplines share racks and mutually
necessary hardware within FCF to dramatically reduce costs and effectively
use ISS resources. Even with the cost of FCF development included,experimentation
using FCF on the space station will cost only half of what it did
on the space shuttles.
FIR Rack from the rear
The Fluids Integration Rack (FIR) is
used to perform fluid physics experiments in microgravity. The FIR
is designed to be easily reconfigured on-orbit similar to an optics
bench in a scientist's laboratory. The FIR will permit a wide range
of fluid investigations for microscopic imaging to particle tracking.
The FIR offers the largest open volume for configuration of unique
experiments on-board the ISS.
CIR Rack
The Combustion Integration Rack (CIR) is
used to perform combustion experiments in microgravity. The CIR is
designed to be easily reconfigured on-orbit to accommodate a wide
variety of combustion experiments. Read the Adobe
Acrobat (PDF) Principal Investigator's
Guide to the CIR Payload Accommodations document for more information
or the public relations brochure Combustion Research in the Fluids
and Combustion Facility.
