The US space agency plans
to try out the largest parachute ever deployed during a flying saucer launch
that will test new technologies for landing on Mars.
The test flight of the
flying saucer, known as the Low-Density Supersonic Decelerator, will be
broadcast live on NASA’s website beginning at 1.30pm local time on Wednesday (0330 AEST
Thursday). Since the atmosphere on Mars is so thin, any parachute that helps a
heavy, fast-moving spacecraft touch down needs to be extra
strong.The US space agency figured out how to do this decades ago, beginning with the Viking mission which put two landers on Mars in 1976.
But with the goal of sending humans to Mars in the 2030s, the agency is now testing a more advanced, new generation of parachute technology, known as the Supersonic Ringsail Parachute, that could allow even heavier spacecraft — the kind that may have humans and months of food and supplies on board — to land softly.
The Low-Density Supersonic Decelerator at the US Navy
Pacific Missile Range Facility in Hawaii.
The test vehicle weighs 3088 kilograms, or about twice the weight of the kind of robotic rover spacecraft NASA is currently capable of landing safely on Mars.
The parachute, described by NASA JPL as “the largest parachute ever deployed,” is 30 metres in diameter.
The goal is for the chute to “slow the entry vehicle from Mach 2 to subsonic speeds,” NASA said.
The test will involve sending the saucer, an inner-tube shaped decelerator and parachute to an altitude of 37 kilometres over the Pacific Ocean with the help of a giant balloon.
The balloon will release the spacecraft and rockets will lift the vehicle even higher, to 55 kilometres, reaching supersonic speeds.
“Travelling at three times the speed of sound, the saucer’s decelerator will inflate, slowing the vehicle, and then a parachute will deploy at 2.35 times the speed of sound to carry it to the ocean’s surface,” NASA said.
With many thanks to The Australian
