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NASA is preparing the technology for use as part of its Mars 2020 powerplant mission, which is scheduled to land on the Red Planet in February 2021 – and breaks world records along the way.
Landing on Mars is a notorious challenge because of the planet's weak atmosphere, making it difficult to slow down a spacecraft enough to land softly on its surface. In order to put its heavier and heavier gear on Mars, NASA had to redefine an existing model of landing parachute – the one that protected the Curiosity rover – with even more resistant materials, notably Kevlar that the Traditionally found in bulletproof vests. [NASA’s Mars Rover 2020 Mission in Pictures]
This high-definition image of NASA shows NASA's rover 2020 final supersonic parachute test. NASA tested the parachute when launching a suborbital rocket on September 7, 2018 to mimic the landing conditions on Mars. Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech
The agency conducted the latest tests of its new parachute in September as part of its experimental research project on advanced supersonic parachute inflation (ASPIRE). The results are there and the parachute has been approved for launch in 2020.
"Like all of our previous missions on Mars, we only have one parachute and it has to work," said John McNamee, project manager of Mars 2020 at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, USA. a statement. "The ASPIRE tests have shown with remarkable accuracy the reaction of our parachute when it will be deployed for the first time in a supersonic flow over Mars – and let me tell you that it is beautiful. "
Last month, the 180-pound parachute, as well as a camera designed to watch it unfold, were launched on a rocket probe since NASA's Wallops flight installation to Virginia. The rocket has reached about 37 km above the surface of the Earth, where the density of the atmosphere is about as dense as 10 km above the surface of Mars, height to which the Mars 2020 parachute is to be deployed.
During the test, the parachute fully deployed in just four tenths of a second, the fastest inflation of a parachute of this size, according to NASA. This will mark the end of the parachute tests, but not the end of the preparations for March 2020.
The second stage of the rocket that launched the ASPIRE parachute test separates from the payload on September 7, 2018.
Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech
"We all want to help 2020 stay in the next 28 months," said Ian Clark, Technical Test Manager at JPL, in a statement. "I may not be able to launch rockets at the edge of space for a while, but when it comes to Mars – and when it's time to go there- down and make it safe – there are always exciting challenges to work here. "
Email Meghan Bartels at [email protected] or follow her. @meghanbartels. follow us @Spacedotcom and Facebook. Original article on Space.com.
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