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Nasa launches 'flying saucer' tech Nasa 'flying saucer' tests Mars tech
(about 5 hours later)
The US space agency (Nasa) has launched an atmospheric test vehicle that looks every inch like a flying saucer. A US space agency (Nasa) experiment on Saturday to test future Mars landing technologies proved largely successful.
In reality, the Low Density Supersonic Decelerator (LDSD) is a demonstrator for the type of technologies humans will need to land on Mars. A flying saucer-shaped vehicle was sent high into the atmosphere via a balloon to trial a new type of parachute and an inflatable Kevlar ring that could help slow down a spacecraft as it approaches the Red Planet's surface.
The LDSD has been sent into the stratosphere via a balloon off Hawaii. All of the equipment appeared to work apart from the parachute, which failed to deploy fully.
It will trial a new type of parachute and an inflatable Kevlar ring that can help slow down a spacecraft as it approaches the Red Planet's surface. The experiment was sent up from Hawaii.
Nasa says it is trying to raise the current maximum mass that can be put on Mars from 1.5 tonnes to something nearer the 20-30 tonnes a human mission might require. Nasa hopes the lessons learned will enable it put heavier payloads on Mars in the decades ahead.
Ian Clark, the LDSD's principal investigator told BBC News: "We're testing technologies that will enable us to land bigger payloads, much heavier payloads, at higher altitude and with more accuracy than we've ever been able to do before." The current limit is about one-and-a-half tonnes.
The experiment was launched from the US Navy's Pacific Missile Range Facility in Kauai, Hawaii. If humans are ever to go to the planet, this mass capability will have to rise to well beyond 10 tonnes.
A helium balloon lifted the LDSD clear of the ground at 08:47 local time (18:47 GMT). It was due to take a couple of hours to raise the vehicle to about 35km (120,000ft) before releasing it. Saturday's test vehicle, known as the Low Density Supersonic Decelerator (LDSD), ditched in the Pacific after its flight.
A rocket motor should then kick the vehicle on up to about 55km (180,000ft) and a velocity of about Mach 4 (four times the speed of sound). Teams were despatched to try to locate the demonstrator so that its data recorder could be recovered.
As the LDSD begins to slow, it will deploy its two new atmospheric braking systems. This will give engineers the most detailed information on what precisely happened during the experiment.
The first to come out will be the 6m (20ft) inflatable "donut". This will increase the vehicle's size and also, as a result, its drag. Video cameras on the ground and on the LDSD captured most of the flight.
Once the velocity has dropped to about Mach 2.5, the parachute will come out. The helium balloon was launched from the US Navy's Pacific Missile Range Facility in Kauai at just after 08:40 local time (18:40 GMT).
“The supersonic parachute we’re testing is enormous,” says Ian Clark. It took over two hours to raise the saucer-shaped vehicle to roughly 35km (120,000ft), whereupon it was released.
“It’s 100ft (30m) in diameter; it generates two-and-a-half times the drag of any previous parachute we’ve sent to Mars. We’re going to use it at a velocity that’s faster than we’ve used a parachute at Mars. A rocket motor then kicked the LDSD on up through the stratosphere to above 50km (160,000ft), and to a velocity of Mach 4 (four times the speed of sound) - the sort of conditions a spacecraft approaching Mars might encounter.
“We’re really going to push it to the edge where the materials themselves, the nylons and Kevlars that the parachute is made of, may start melting. As the vehicle began to slow, it deployed the first of its two new atmospheric braking systems.
“We don’t know; that’s why we do this testing.” This first system was a 6m (20ft) inflatable "doughnut". It enlarged the LDSD's girth and so will have slowed the saucer further by increasing the amount of drag it experienced.
Assuming the structures all stay intact, the parachute should drop the LDSD in the ocean after about 45 minutes. The second braking system, however, did not come out properly.
Nasa's plan is to return next year with a larger ring and parachute to test. Upward-looking video showed the 30m-diameter supersonic parachute failing to unfurl correctly.
The Curiosity rover, at one tonne, is the biggest object landed on Mars to date. Nasa engineers said before the test that they would gather valuable data whether the technologies on the LDSD worked properly or not.
There is a recognition that this payload capability will have to be increased substantially if astronauts on the planet are to receive all the food supplies and equipment they need to survive. The project hopes to return to Hawaii next year to conduct two further test flights.