The U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has successfully completed a test launch of a saucer-shaped vehicle into near space, which could be destined for future Mars missions.
NASA has been showing great interest in exploring Mars since 1960's. However, recently the U.S. space agency has shown even greater keenness for exploring the Red Planet. NASA launched the Curiosity rover in 2011, which has already landed on the surface of the planet and is examining the past and present habitual aspects of Mars.
NASA reveals that its current technology in some fields such as decelerating of spacecraft from a very high speed, when in the atmosphere, to the ultimate landing stages on the Red Planet is several years old. The technology is based on the agency's Viking Program, dating back to 1976, which landed spacecrafts on Mars. Since then, the same Viking parachute design is used by NASA to land spacecrafts on Mars. The Curiosity rover also landed on the surface of Mars using the Viking parachute design.
NASA now seeks to make advancements to the decelerating of spacecraft technology and take advantage of atmospheric drag, which will save fuel and rocket engines for the final landing. NASA reveals that the next-generation landers will need bigger drag devices, when compared to the current devices in use.
To land the vehicles, cargo and crew safely on the surface of Mars, these devices will also require to be deployed at a supersonic speed. NASA's Low Density Supersonic Decelerator (LDSD) Technology Demonstration Mission, which is led by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, is testing the new technologies so that they can be used for future Mars mission.
NASA's JPL has also released a video and a few pictures showing the saucer-shaped test vehicles in action. NASA estimates that the saucer-shaped design will enable the test vehicle to reach high speeds and altitudes required for the testing.
NASA explains that the Supersonic Inflatable Aerodynamic Decelerator (SIAD) is a huge, doughnut-shaped air brake, which was deployed during the flight that helped the vehicle slow down from 3.8 to 2 times the speed of sound.
"As far as I am concerned, whenever you get to ride shotgun on a rocket-powered flying saucer, it is a good day," says Ian Clark, principal investigator for LDSD at NASA's JPL. "We hope the video will show everyone how beautiful and awesome the test was, and to just to give folks an insight into what experimental flight test is all about."
Check out the latest technology in action in the video below.
