Fire Standard Database

The Fire Standard Database project will develop a web-based application that provides datasets, analysis tools, and example models to support spacecraft fire safety design and certification. The NASA Engineering and Safety Center (NESC) is currently developing a spacecraft fire safety certification standard for future spacecraft and habitats that will include both prescriptive and performance-based requirements. These requirements will require vehicle programs to demonstrate through analysis and testing that their designs can prevent substantial loss of mission or crew in the event of a fire. Supporting these assessments requires access to curated data and validated analytical tools that spacecraft designers can apply during vehicle design and certification activities.

The platform will support key spacecraft fire safety disciplines including material flammability, fire detection, fire suppression, emergency breathing protection, and post-fire cleanup. Development will proceed incrementally, beginning with fire detection datasets and modeling capabilities and expanding in later phases to include suppression systems, lithium-ion battery fire hazards, post-fire cleanup and emergency mask analysis, and fire growth modeling in reduced-gravity environments. The purpose of this project is to assemble validated datasets, analysis tools, and example models that enable vehicle designers to evaluate fire hazards and demonstrate compliance with the fire safety standard under development by the NESC.

The anticipated benefits of this work are to provide spacecraft and habitat designers with a centralized, accessible repository of fire safety data, validated analysis tools, and example case studies that enable compliance with NASA's performance-based fire safety standard. By consolidating fire growth prediction data, suppressant effectiveness information, detector selection algorithms, and verified modeling tools, this database will allow vehicle programs to demonstrate through analysis that their designs meet fire detection, suppression, response, and post-fire clean-up requirements, ultimately ensuring crew safety and mission success for the Moon and Mars exploration environments.

This is early/mid-stage (TRL 4) — the most realistic path in is NASA SBIR/STTR, which funds small businesses and research institutions to develop technology aligned with NASA's needs (equity-free, phased funding). Check whether a current SBIR/STTR solicitation topic overlaps with this project's technology area, or contact the project directly (above) to ask.

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