CLEVELAND — NASA researchers plan to ignite four solid-fuel samples on the Moon in late 2026 to learn whether lunar gravity can make some spacecraft materials burn more readily than expected as Artemis missions move toward longer surface stays, April 20, 2026.
The experiment, called Flammability of Materials on the Moon, or FM2, will compare fire behavior in lunar gravity with Earth-based tests because some materials that appear safe in normal gravity may behave differently in partial gravity.
NASA Moon fire test targets a partial-gravity blind spot
The hidden risk is counterintuitive. On Earth, gravity helps hot gases rise quickly from a flame while pulling fresh oxygen toward the base. In lunar gravity, that flow may slow enough for some flames to keep burning instead of blowing themselves out. A recent Lunar and Planetary Science Conference abstract by NASA-linked researchers says normal Earth-gravity testing may not represent the most flammable condition for every material.
That matters because Artemis crews will not just pass by the Moon. NASA’s current Artemis architecture targets the first Artemis lunar landing in early 2028, followed by another surface mission later that year and roughly annual missions after that. Longer stays mean more equipment, more cabin materials, more suits and more time inside pressurized systems where a small ignition source could become a serious emergency.
FM2 is designed to be sealed and instrumented. Cameras will record the flames, while sensors track oxygen, heat and radiation. NASA project manager Emily Johnson said in a NASA Johnson Space Center podcast that the payload will send four samples to the Moon, light them and observe what happens in real partial gravity.
Why the fire risk could grow inside lunar habitats
The danger is not only gravity. Future lunar and Martian habitats may use lower pressure with higher oxygen concentrations to make spacewalk preparation easier and reduce structural demands. Higher oxygen can make materials easier to ignite and harder to extinguish.
NASA already uses material screening standards to reduce fire risk. The agency’s flammability, offgassing and compatibility standard establishes requirements and test methods for selecting materials used in space vehicles and related equipment. The Moon test asks whether those ground-based methods need updates for partial gravity environments.
The immediate concern is not that Artemis systems are unsafe. It is that lunar gravity may expose a gap in how engineers measure safety before hardware leaves Earth. If FM2 shows that certain materials burn longer, spread faster or extinguish at lower oxygen thresholds on the Moon, NASA could adjust material rules before astronauts spend extended time in surface habitats or pressurized rovers.
A lesson NASA has studied since Apollo
Fire safety has shaped crewed spaceflight for decades. After the January 1967 Apollo 1 fire, NASA created a Senior Flammability Test Review Board and ran extensive tests on Lunar Module and Command Module mockups, according to a NASA history article on Apollo flammability tests. Engineers then reduced or removed flammable materials and ignition sources where possible.
That history continued in orbit. In 2016, NASA Glenn Research Center conducted the first remote Saffire spacecraft fire experiment inside an uncrewed Cygnus cargo vehicle after it left the International Space Station, according to NASA’s announcement of the Saffire I burn. The test let researchers study a larger fire than would be safe aboard a crewed spacecraft.
NASA later closed the Saffire series after six missions. In 2024, the agency said the eight-year investigation gathered data that would help improve mission safety and guide future spacecraft and spacesuit designs in a review of the long-running spacecraft fire experiment.
What scientists expect to learn next
FM2 builds on earlier reduced-gravity research. A NASA Technical Reports Server record on the Lunar Combustion Investigation says a rotating Blue Origin New Shepard sounding rocket produced simulated lunar gravity and enabled extended-duration combustion tests of a fabric sample and an acrylic plastic rod. That work was described as a steppingstone toward burning samples directly on the lunar surface.
The Moon test should provide cleaner benchmark data because it avoids the short test windows of drop towers and aircraft and reduces the modeling uncertainty that comes from simulating lunar gravity on Earth. The experiment will not qualify every material needed for Artemis, but it should show whether lunar gravity changes the safety margin engineers rely on.
The likely outcome is practical rather than dramatic: better models, better material tests and better design choices for future lunar systems. If the Moon turns out to be a place where certain materials burn more easily than expected, the safest time to learn that is before astronauts begin living there.
