On Tuesday, NASA showed how they have been spending a lot of our tax money for the last couple of years, by showing off a new “Flying Saucer” landing craft at a “spin test” at the JPL in Pasadena, California. The vehicle is about 15 feet wide and weighs around 7,000 lbs. NASA says it will be a critical part of any future landings on planets with atmospheres such as Mars.
The Saucer is designed to be rocket powered, and is capable of carrying larger payloads that those in the past. The flying saucer is part of NASA’s Low-Density Supersonic Decelerator (LDSD) project, which aims to develop landing vehicles for future missions.
NASA says the project tests “breakthrough technologies that will enable large payloads to be safely landed on the surface of Mars, or other planetary bodies with atmospheres, including Earth.” According to the space agency, the technologies will also offer access to more of the red planet’s surface by enabling landings at higher-altitude sites.
Tuesdays test was designed to check for any wobbles that might be inherent in the vehicle design. Engineers said that should any be found they can be corrected by the addition of weights in strategic locations. “This is like spinning your automobile tire, and putting weights on it to make sure that it spins perfectly,” LDSD Chief Engineer Rob Manning, of JPL, said during the test.
The LDSD project is developing and testing saucer like devices called Supersonic Inflatable Aerodynamic Decelerators (SIADs) and a 100-foot-wide supersonic parachute — the biggest such chute ever flown. The SIADs are designed to fit around the rim of an entry vehicle. They will inflate as the craft screams through the atmosphere of its target planet, increasing surface area and drag, and slowing down the vehicle.
NASA officials hope such technology can increase the size of the payloads the agency can put down on Mars. The “sky crane” system that landed Curiosity in August 2012 can handle about 1 metric ton — far short of the 10 to 20 metric tons (about 11 to 22 tons) that will likely be required for manned exploration of the Red Planet, officials said. “You can think of this as a stepping stone,” Reuther said. “Certainly, we have to take this step before we eventually get to a capability that can put 10 or more metric tons to the surface of Mars.”
The LDSD vehicle, which incorporates a 20-foot-wide (6 m) SIAD as well as the big chute, is in final preparations for shipment to Hawaii, where it will undergo the program’s second-ever flight test from the U.S. Navy’s Pacific Missile Range Facility on the island of Kauai between June 2 and June 12, weather permitting. During the first test flight, which took place last June from the same Kauai facility, a huge balloon carried a test vehicle up to an altitude of 23 miles. The balloon then dropped the craft, whose onboard rocket motor kicked on and boosted it to Mach 4 (four times the speed of sound) and an altitude of 34 miles. The air in those high altitudes is a good analog for the Martian atmosphere, which is just 1 percent as thick as that of Earth at sea level, project team members say.
Things went pretty much perfectly until it was time for the parachute, which tore almost immediately upon deployment. The team has changed the chute’s design for the upcoming flight test, strengthening some elements and modifying its shape. “We believe this parachute is a lot stronger than the parachute we tested last summer,” Manning said. “The question is, will it be strong enough?” A third balloon-aided flight test will likely launch from Kauai in summer 2016, LDSD team members said.
Read more at http://universalfreepress.com/nasa-tests-flying-saucer-for-mars-flight/
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