Forget Area 51 — NASA is planning to launch its own version of a flying saucer on Wednesday.
This “flying saucer,” officially known as a Low Density Supersonic Decelerator, is designed to slow down spacecraft when entering the edge of a planet’s atmosphere. It could be crucial to future missions to Mars. On Wednesday, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology will closely monitor their revamped Supersonic Disk Sail parachute.
This supersonic parachute is the focus of NASA’s flight test off Kauai, Hawaii. In 2014, NASA examined the LDSD to determine both its flying ability as well as new braking technology, both of which performed as expected. The parachute, however, did not meet expectations.
“There’s the inflatable part that slows it down past supersonic speed and then the parachute that slows it down enough to make a gentle landing. It didn’t work. It splashed down pretty hard into the water,” Tariq Malik, managing editor of Space.com, said.
This situation sent the scientists back to the drawing-board.
“We think we have a great design ready for the challenge, but the proof is in the pudding and the pudding will be made live for everyone to see,” said Mark Adler, project manager, referring the fact that the entire test will be streamed live from NASA Television.
The new chute would be the largest supersonic parachute ever tested for use on Mars and should ideally be able to slow the test vehicle while in supersonic flight. Featuring a different design than last year, the parachute measures 100 feet across, weighs less than 300 pounds, and can generate 120,000 pounds of drag.
“[NASA’s] goal is to develop a landing system that would allow them to land something twice the size of what they can do now, which is around one ton or twice the size of a Curiosity Rover,” Malik added.
Some time after 1:30 p.m., a large weather balloon will carry the LDSD for more than two hours up to a height of 120,000 feet. Twenty minutes before the LDSD drops from the balloon and the rocket-powered portion of the test begins, commentary and filming will resume.
Four cameras will record the entirety of the test. Two cameras will focus on the rim of the test vehicle and will document the performance of the the Supersonic Aerodynamic Decelerator, a larger donut-shaped deceleration technology. A third will record the rocket motor firing. The fourth camera, and the one the researchers are most focused on, is aimed upwards and will catch the deployment of the ballute and supersonic parachute.
“What we will be looking most closely for is to see what happens on that fourth camera, when at Mach 2.35 our supersonic parachute is deployed,” said Adler in an online press release.
Mach 2.35 roughly equates to 1,800 miles per hour, and is the rate the LDSD will be going when the parachute is deployed to lower the speed of the equipment to far below supersonic levels, allowing for a safe landing in the water.
The flight should last anywhere from three to six hours, at the end of which time everything will splash down in the ocean to be collected by researchers for examination.
“Technology like this would make the leap to Mars possible. You need new rovers, new habitats and that’s all much bigger than what we can land now. We need the most bang for our buck. You could save fuel for for the rocket and replace it with the inflatable … it’s kind of innovative, using the inflatable to get rid of all that gear. It’s using the atmosphere to slow down the craft,” said Malik.
Both the LDSD and the parachute are key for getting larger deliveries to Mars safely, giving human explorers longer opportunities to discover the planet as more supplies would be able to make it to Mars at one time.
“We’ll see kind of what that means for the next test next year,” said Malik. “Are they gonna go higher? Faster? If this works, you could see maybe astronauts on one of these flown to the surface of Mars one day. That would be really exciting.”
