An understanding of soot processes in flames produced in microgravity will contribute to our ability to predict fire behavior on
Earth. However, no soot measurements have been made of quasi-steady, microgravity flames. The Comparative Soot Diagnostics
(CSD) experiment will provide the first such measurements and will provide data useful for understanding soot processes on
Onboard USMP-3 on STS-75
Earth. Since fire detector systems currently flown on the shuttle and scheduled for use on Iternational Space Station (ISS) have
not been tested for quasi-steady, low-gravity sources of minute particles, this data will also be studied for its applicability to the
design and operation of future spacecraft smoke detection systems.
