High waves forced NASA to postpone until yesterday the first test of the largest parachute ever deployed, during a flying saucer launch that was to try out new technologies for landing on Mars.
If conditions improved, the test flight of the flying saucer, known as the Low-Density Supersonic Decelerator, was to be broadcast live on NASA’s Web site beginning at 5:30pm GMT.
“The ocean wave height continues to be an issue for the crew that would recover the vehicle and its data after splashdown,” NASA said after the postponement of Wednesday’s planned attempt. A bid on Tuesday was also canceled because of ocean conditions.
The launch window for the test extends until June 12.
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 that put two landers on Mars in 1976.
However, with the goal of sending people to Mars in the 2030s, the agency is now testing a more advanced, new generation of parachute technology known as the supersonic ringsail parachute, which could allow even heavier spacecraft — the kind that might have people, and months of food and supplies on board — to land softly.
“We want to see if the ’chute can successfully deploy and decelerate the test vehicle while it is in supersonic flight,” NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory said in a statement.
The parachute, described by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory as “the largest parachute ever deployed,” is 30m in diameter.
The goal is for the parachute to “slow the entry vehicle from Mach 2 to subsonic speeds,” NASA said.
The test is set to involve sending the saucer, an inner-tube shaped decelerator and parachute to an altitude of 37km 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 54.9km, reaching supersonic speeds. “Traveling 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.
The first test flight of the flying saucer was in June last year and another test flight is planned for next year.
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