zombola
06-09-2015, 12:42 PM
http://s4.reutersmedia.net/resources/r/?m=02&d=20150608&t=2&i=1054702924&w=460&fh=&fw=&ll=&pl=&r=LYNXMPEB570WZ
An undated artist's concept shows the test vehicle for NASA's Low-Density Supersonic Decelerator (LDSD), designed to test landing technologies for future Mars missions.
Reuters/NASA/JPL-Caltech/Handout
A massive helium balloon lifted off from a U.S. Navy base in Hawaii on Monday to carry an experimental saucer-shaped Mars landing system into the atmosphere for a second test run, a NASA TV broadcast showed.
Stretching about as tall as a 98-story building, the balloon, parachute, cables and NASA's test vehicle floated away at 7:43 a.m. HST (1743 GMT) from the U.S. Navy Pacific Missile Range Facility on Kauai, Hawaii.
The balloon was expected to take about three hours to reach an altitude of 120,000 feet (36,576 meters), at which point NASA's saucer-shaped Low Density Supersonic Decelerator (LDSD) spacecraft will separate for its test flight.
A solid-rocket motor will then ignite, booting LDSD up to about 180,000 feet (54,864 meters) - or five times higher than where commercial passenger jets fly - and zipping along at nearly 3,000 mph (4,828 kph), or four times the speed of sound.
The speed and altitude are intended to simulate conditions that a spacecraft plunging through the thin atmosphere of Mars would experience. NASA wants to develop systems to land heavy rovers and eventually, human habitats, on Mars.
A doughnut-shaped shield that encircles LDSD will inflate, increasing the vehicle's size so it generates more friction to slow its descent. When LDSD slows to a speed of about 2.5 times the speed of sound a massive parachute will unfurl to guide the spacecraft to a smooth landing in the Pacific Ocean, west of Hawaii.
NASA tested the system last year, but ran into problems when the parachute shredded as it was being released.
"We saw a much more dynamic and much more turbulent parachute inflation than we had ever known ... things like the suspension lines exploding like lightning, moving in a very chaotic manner all over the place," lead researcher Ian Clark, with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, told reporters during a prelaunch conference call.
The parachute was extensively remodeled for LDSD's second flight.
"We're not sure that it's going to work, that's why we're doing the test," said NASA engineer and mission commentator Dan Coatta.
Recovery ships were standing by in the Pacific to recover the spacecraft, parachute and other equipment.
(Reporting by Irene Klotz, editing by G Crosse)
An undated artist's concept shows the test vehicle for NASA's Low-Density Supersonic Decelerator (LDSD), designed to test landing technologies for future Mars missions.
Reuters/NASA/JPL-Caltech/Handout
A massive helium balloon lifted off from a U.S. Navy base in Hawaii on Monday to carry an experimental saucer-shaped Mars landing system into the atmosphere for a second test run, a NASA TV broadcast showed.
Stretching about as tall as a 98-story building, the balloon, parachute, cables and NASA's test vehicle floated away at 7:43 a.m. HST (1743 GMT) from the U.S. Navy Pacific Missile Range Facility on Kauai, Hawaii.
The balloon was expected to take about three hours to reach an altitude of 120,000 feet (36,576 meters), at which point NASA's saucer-shaped Low Density Supersonic Decelerator (LDSD) spacecraft will separate for its test flight.
A solid-rocket motor will then ignite, booting LDSD up to about 180,000 feet (54,864 meters) - or five times higher than where commercial passenger jets fly - and zipping along at nearly 3,000 mph (4,828 kph), or four times the speed of sound.
The speed and altitude are intended to simulate conditions that a spacecraft plunging through the thin atmosphere of Mars would experience. NASA wants to develop systems to land heavy rovers and eventually, human habitats, on Mars.
A doughnut-shaped shield that encircles LDSD will inflate, increasing the vehicle's size so it generates more friction to slow its descent. When LDSD slows to a speed of about 2.5 times the speed of sound a massive parachute will unfurl to guide the spacecraft to a smooth landing in the Pacific Ocean, west of Hawaii.
NASA tested the system last year, but ran into problems when the parachute shredded as it was being released.
"We saw a much more dynamic and much more turbulent parachute inflation than we had ever known ... things like the suspension lines exploding like lightning, moving in a very chaotic manner all over the place," lead researcher Ian Clark, with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, told reporters during a prelaunch conference call.
The parachute was extensively remodeled for LDSD's second flight.
"We're not sure that it's going to work, that's why we're doing the test," said NASA engineer and mission commentator Dan Coatta.
Recovery ships were standing by in the Pacific to recover the spacecraft, parachute and other equipment.
(Reporting by Irene Klotz, editing by G Crosse)