Materials used for Human Spaceflight spacecrafts should sustain a number of challenging environments and corresponding requirements. Not only should the materials perform reliably but they should also not pose a hazard for the spacecraft infrastructure or the crew members.. In order to investigate the flammability of materials used in space applications, materials are tested according to the the current standards namely the NASA STD-6001B and the ECSS-Q-ST-70-21C which the typical flammability tests used for space missions. In this case, the flammability of materials are tested using an upward propagating flame on the material which is set vertically in the chamber. This is a pass/fail test.

Moreover, human exploration missions in the near future, e.g the Lunar Gateway or at the lunar surface, will expose materials to a higher oxygen concentration than is typically found on the ISS. Such scenarios require that flammability testing must be carried out in order to demonstrate the materials' suitability to these new mission environments and ensure design safety and flammability hazard control.

In the frame of a joint activity with ESA, Thales Alenia Space Italy – Turin conceived a high volume flammability chamber; the FlAMMA- Flammability facility for Future HuMan Missions SpAceflight.

The FIAMMA chamber is adaptable to various flammability test methods, including the Upward Propagation Test (UPT) , the Upward limiting oxygen index (ULOI) and the Maximum oxygen concentration (MOC) tests. 

The FIAMMA facility, apart from testing at materials level, is the only facility within Europe which can perform flammability testing at component level e.g such as COTS items. 

The present work will present the results of test campaigns conducted on various classes and forms of materials using different test conditions as well as different ignition sources.