Metal-Organic Framework (MOF) Enabled Atmospheric Contaminant Passive Scrubbing Technology for Submarines

Quantifying smoke particle concentrations and properties, as well as gas-phase emissions, from spacecraft-relevant materials is critical for development of fire detection, suppression, and post-fire cleanup strategies and hardware. Previous NASA spacecraft fire safety test campaigns have produced data representative of potential fire scenarios in the International Space Station (ISS) in low-Earth orbit (LEO). Ground experiment results in NASA laboratories were similar to microgravity smoke experiments for most materials tested under a known external velocity threshold, so representative testing of an expanded set of materials is possible without the expense and complication of follow-on autonomous smoke experiment flight payloads. For Artemis, Gateway, and future Martian and deep-space exploration missions, NASA is pursuing a new generation of vehicles with different materials, cabin environments, and concepts of operations (conops), warranting new smoke characterization experiments for fire safety. Preliminary testing in the Gases and Aerosols from Smoldering Polymers (GASP) laboratory was performed at NASA Glenn Research Center to investigate smoke from novel materials relevant to the Artemis mission. Spacecraft-relevant materials investigated during this testing included two configurations of polybenzimidazole fabric (“PBI Knit” and “PBI Max”), Nomex® Velcro, and Westex Synergy® Pro. Here, we focus on smoke aerosol properties measured by an Electrical Low-Pressure Impactor (ELPI+) which provided real-time particle size distributions, number concentrations, and mass concentrations. These tests provide the first particle size distributions for early smoke from these fire-resistant materials, which should inform selection of smoke detector technologies and alarm thresholds for future vehicles.