Mars 'flying saucer' splashes down after NASA test

[Buster's Uncle]

Bum parachute mars NASA ‘saucer’ test flight
Reuters
By Irene Klotz  22 hours ago



A high altitude balloon is released to launch a saucer-shaped test vehicle, which holds equipment for landing large payloads on Mars, at the U.S. Navy's Pacific Missile Range Facility in Kauai, Hawaii June 28, 2014. REUTERS/Marco Garcia



CAPE CANAVERAL Fla. (Reuters) - A helium balloon carrying an experimental saucer-shaped NASA spacecraft floated off a launch tower at the U.S. Navy's Pacific Missile Range Facility in Kauai, Hawaii, on Saturday to test landing systems for future missions to Mars.

A novel inflatable shield to burn off speed worked but the test fell apart when a massive parachute, intended to guide the saucer to a splashdown in the ocean, failed to inflate properly.

“This is an opportunity for us to take a look at the data, learn what happened and apply that to the next test,” NASA engineer Dan Coatta, with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, said during an interview on NASA Television.

"That’s a more valuable experience for us than if everything had gone perfectly,” he said. The balloon – big enough to fill the Rose Bowl football stadium in Pasadena, California – lifted off at 2:40 p.m. EDT (1840 GMT) and reached its designated altitude 120,000 feet (36,576 meters) above the Pacific Ocean about 2.5 hours later.

The launch, which had been delayed six times this month because of unsuitable weather, and the test were broadcast live on NASA Television.

The saucer-shaped Low Density Supersonic Decelerator, or LDSD, successfully separated from the balloon and fired up its rocket motor, reaching speeds of 3,000 mph (4,828 kph) – roughly four times the speed of sound.

That set the stage for the real point of the test – collecting engineering data on a novel doughnut-shaped structure designed to quickly unfold, inflate and slow the craft’s descent. The LDSD also held a massive supersonic parachute – the largest NASA has ever tested – that was to guide the craft to a controlled re-entry into the Pacific Ocean.

The 110-foot-diameter (34-meter) parachute failed to properly inflate, however, engineers monitoring the test said.

Recovery teams were standing by to pick up all the equipment splashing down in the ocean.

The point of the test flight was to put a prototype landing system through conditions that would be experienced on Mars.

“When we’re actually going to use it for real, it’s going to be on a spacecraft, entering the atmosphere of Mars at thousands of miles per hour, so we have to come up with some way on Earth to simulate that condition in order to prove that these things work,” Coatta said.

The test is part of a larger technology-developing initiative to prepare to send heavier rovers and eventually human habitats to Mars.

NASA is spending about $200 million on the five-year project, which began in 2010. LDSD’s next test is scheduled for next summer.

(Editing by Bill Trott)


http://news.yahoo.com/nasa-launches-balloon-carrying-mars-saucer-prototype-193911863.html

[Buster's Uncle]

Mars 'flying saucer' splashes down after NASA test
Associated Press
By CHRISTOPHER WEBER  2 hours ago



This image provided by NASA shows the launch of the high-altitude balloon carrying a saucer-shaped vehicle for NASA, to test technology that could be used to land on Mars, Saturday June 28, 2014 in Kauai, Hawaii. Saturday's experimental flight high in Earth's atmosphere is testing a giant parachute designed to deliver heavier spacecraft and eventually astronauts. (AP Photo/NASA)



LOS ANGELES (AP) — NASA has tested new technology designed to bring spacecraft — and one day even astronauts — safely down to Mars, with the agency declaring the experiment a qualified success even though a giant parachute got tangled on the way down.

Saturday's $150 million experiment is the first of three involving the Low Density Supersonic Decelerator vehicle. Tests are being conducted at high altitude on Earth to mimic descent through the thin atmosphere of the Red Planet.

A balloon hauled the saucer-shaped craft 120,000 feet into the sky from a Navy missile range on the Hawaiian island of Kauai. Then, the craft's own rocket boosted it to more than 30 miles high at supersonic speeds.

As the craft prepared to fall back to earth, a doughnut-shaped tube around it expanded like a Hawaiian puffer fish, creating atmospheric drag to dramatically slow it down from Mach 4, or four times the speed of sound.

Then the parachute unfurled — but only partially. The vehicle made a hard landing in the Pacific Ocean.

Engineers won't look at the parachute problem as a failure but as a way to learn more and apply that knowledge during future tests, said NASA engineer Dan Coatta with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.



This image taken from video provided by NASA shows the launch of the high-altitude balloon carrying a saucer-shaped vehicle for NASA, to test technology that could be used to land on Mars, Saturday June 28, 2014 in Kauai, Hawaii. Saturday's experimental flight high in Earth's atmosphere is testing a giant parachute designed to deliver heavier spacecraft and eventually astronauts. (AP Photo/NASA)


"In a way, that's a more valuable experience for us than if everything had gone exactly according to plan," he said.

A ship was sent to recover a "black box" designed to separate from the vehicle and float. Outfitted with a GPS beacon, the box contains the crucial flight data that scientists are eager to analyze.

NASA investigators expect to know more once they have analyzed data from the box, which they expect to retrieve Sunday along with the vehicle and parachute. They also expect to recover high resolution video.

"We've got a lot to look at," Ian Clark, principal investigator at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, told reporters on a teleconference.

Since the twin Viking spacecraft landed on the red planet in 1976, NASA has relied on a parachute to slow landers and rovers.



This image taken from video provided by NASA shows the launch of the high-altitude balloon carrying a saucer-shaped vehicle for NASA, to test technology that could be used to land on Mars, Saturday June 28, 2014 in Kauai, Hawaii. Saturday's experimental flight high in Earth's atmosphere is testing a giant parachute designed to deliver heavier spacecraft and eventually astronauts. (AP Photo/NASA)


But the latest experiment involved both the drag-inducing device and a parachute that was 110 feet in diameter — twice as large as the one that carried the 1-ton Curiosity rover in 2011.

Cutting-edge technologies are needed to safely land larger payloads on Mars, enabling delivery of supplies and materials "and to pave the way for future human explorers," a NASA statement said.

Technology development "is the surest path to Mars," said Michael Gazarik, head of space technology at NASA headquarters.

___

Associated Press writers Alicia Chang and Amy Taxin contributed to this report.


http://news.yahoo.com/mars-flying-saucer-splashes-down-nasa-test-224459543.html