On an operational level, the LDSD's purpose is to
assist in slowing down a vehicle that is coming in for a landing. In the
most recent model of the Mars rover—Curiosity—it was helped out by the
use of parachutes and rockets to ensure a smooth landing. However, much
larger machines would need an even more complex system.
Mechanical
Engineer Mike Meacham, inside of the testing laboratory, described LDSD
as a "much larger, supersonic parachute," as stated in an article from
The Blaze. "When we land spacecraft on Mars, we're going extremely fast.
We have got to slow down, so we use a parachute — we use a really big
parachute," Meacham said, The Blaze reported.
Looking at
price tags, Curiosity cost a whopping $2 billion, so landing devices
like this latest rover will most likely be made up of expensive
materials. Therefore, having the LDSD as an extra safeguard to protect
these pricy pieces in space only seems like a realistic choice.
"It
may seem obvious, but the difference between landing and crashing is
stopping," Allen Chen at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California
explained to New Scientist.
Testing is scheduled to take
place in Kauai, Hawaii, in the month of June and NASA has chosen this
location for an ideal reason. Meacham claims that the last parachute
testing range used to take place in a wind tunnel. Though, newer
parachute operations are too big for these confined spaces.
"You
want to go Mars and you want to go big, then you got to test big. You
got to be a little crazy sometimes if you want to do the crazy things,"
Meacham said, as stated in an article from The Blaze.
The
deceleration system could be a "game-changer" according to what Robert
Braun at Georgia Tech explained to New Scientist. "You could take a mass
to the surface equal to something like one to 10 Curiosities. Think
about it like a bridge for humans to Mars. This is the next step in a
sequence of technologies that would need to be developed," Braun said,
as reported by The Blaze.
Read more: http://voiceofrussia.com/2014_04_11/NASA-tests-out-flying-saucer-for-future-Mars-missions-8013/
Read more: http://voiceofrussia.com/2014_04_11/NASA-tests-out-flying-saucer-for-future-Mars-missions-8013/
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