Subscribe free to our newsletters via your
. Space Industry and Business News .




MARSDAILY
NASA's 'flying saucer' tests new Mars-landing technology
by Staff Writers
Washington (AFP) June 29, 2014


NASA sent a saucer-like vehicle high into the sky Saturday to test technology for a future Mars landing, but its parachute tangled when deployed and the spacecraft splashed into the Pacific Ocean.

The test began when the US space agency attached its "Low-Density Supersonic Decelerator" vehicle to a helium balloon the size of a football field, the largest ever deployed, at a military base on the Hawaiian island of Kauai. The balloon carried the saucer high into the sky starting at 1840 GMT.

NASA television broadcast the event live.

After some 2.5 hours of ascent, when the balloon reached a height of 120,000 feet (36,600 meters), it detached the saucer, which fired its rocket engine and rose to 180,000 feet (54,900 meters) traveling at 3.8 times the speed of sound.

At that point the engine was cut off and NASA began its first test -- deploying a doughnut-shaped inflatable device around the saucer dubbed the "Supersonic Inflatable Aerodynamic Decelerator."

This successfully slowed the saucer's descent to 2.5 times the speed of sound.

As the saucer plunged towards Earth, NASA began its second test -- deploying a giant parachute 36 meters in diameter.

The new technologies are being tested at extremely high altitudes similar to those in Mars' upper atmosphere.

To land on Mars NASA has been using a parachute system first used in the 1970s, but with heavier spacecraft larger parachutes are needed.

The mammoth parachute should have helped the saucer complete a gentle landing on the Pacific Ocean. Instead it failed to fully deploy and the saucer plunged into the water.

The parachute "does not look like it deployed that well," said Dan Coatta, one of the mission specialists, interviewed on NASA TV. "It deployed, but it did not fully inflate."

Despite the parachute failure, NASA was satisfied with the $150 million test.

"What we saw is a very good test," said Coatta, noting that everything went well up to the point of the parachute test.

"This is an opportunity to look at the data and learn what happen and apply that for the next test," he said.

NASA has two more flights planned to further test the new landing technology.

Strong winds had forced NASA to postpone the flight, originally scheduled for a two-week launch window in early June.

.


Related Links
Mars News and Information at MarsDaily.com
Lunar Dreams and more






Comment on this article via your Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, Hotmail login.

Share this article via these popular social media networks
del.icio.usdel.icio.us DiggDigg RedditReddit GoogleGoogle








MARSDAILY
New Mars Lander to Probe Interior of Red Planet
Washington DC (SPX) May 29, 2014
The U.S. space agency, NASA, recently gave the green light for the construction of a new Mars lander that will examine the deep interior of the Red Planet. The new Mars mission is called the Interior Exploration Using Seismic Investigation Geodesy and Heat Transport, which is why everyone knows it by its acronym: InSight. The mission's spacecraft is scheduled to launch from California's Va ... read more


MARSDAILY
Whale of a target: harpooning space debris

Raytheon touts blimp-borne radar system

NOAA GOES-R Satellite Black Wing Ready for Flight

Ghost writing the whip

MARSDAILY
Thales enhancing communications of EU peacekeepers

Exelis enhancing communications for NATO country

Chemring integrates new system with Resolve

Northrop Grumman Receives Funding for Electronic Warfare Systems for US Army and Navy

MARSDAILY
Indian rocket launch delayed three minutes to avoid space debris

Indian launches PSLV C-23 rocket carrying five foreign satellites

NASA aborts launch of OCO-2

SpaceX to launch six satellites all at once

MARSDAILY
US Refusal to Host Russian Navigation Stations Political

Soyuz Rocket puts Russian GLONASS-M navigation satellite into orbit

Russia may join forces with China to compete with US, European satnavs

Russia Says GLONASS Accuracy Could Be Boosted to Two Feet

MARSDAILY
Unrest in Iraq could delay delivery of US F-16s

South Korean jets arrive for modernization

High-tech hot air balloon floats to 120,000 feet

200th production NH90 delivered to Belgium

MARSDAILY
Move Over, Silicon, There's a New Circuit in Town

Swell new sensors

Ultra-thin wires for quantum computing

Quantum computation: Fragile yet error-free

MARSDAILY
Shifting land won't stop your journey

NASA's OCO-2 Will Track Our Impact on Airborne Carbon

New NASA Images Highlight US Air Quality Improvement

ADS launches Radar Constellation Challenge with HisdeSAT

MARSDAILY
Moths and other pollinators have trouble finding food amid vehicle exhaust

Pollution blamed for drop in Beijing tourism: Xinhua

Greenpeace left red-faced after top official travel expose

Malaysian police detain Australian activist




The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2014 - Space Media Network. All websites are published in Australia and are solely subject to Australian law and governed by Fair Use principals for news reporting and research purposes. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA news reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement, agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. Privacy Statement All images and articles appearing on Space Media Network have been edited or digitally altered in some way. Any requests to remove copyright material will be acted upon in a timely and appropriate manner. Any attempt to extort money from Space Media Network will be ignored and reported to Australian Law Enforcement Agencies as a potential case of financial fraud involving the use of a telephonic carriage device or postal service.