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NASA has launched a rocket probe from the flight facility in Wallops, Va., To test a supersonic parachute to land on its next vehicle.
The rocket launched on Friday was equipped with the Advanced Supersonic Parachute Inflation Research Experiment (ASPIRE) from NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California.
The payload went down in parachute and sank in the Atlantic Ocean 28 miles from Wallops Island, Nasa said.
The parachute was successfully recovered and returned to Wallops for data recovery and inspection.
The suborbital launch was designed to mimic the conditions the parachute might encounter when landing on Mars, Space.com reported.
"It's really a resistance test of the March 2020 (rover) design," said Jeremy Hill, Mechanical Engineer at JPL, during a webcast launch.
"We want to be closer to the Martian environment."
The payload is a bullet-shaped cylindrical structure containing a supersonic parachute, the parachute deployment mechanism and the high definition instrumentation of the test – including the cameras – to record the data.
The Mars 2020 rover mission is expected to be launched in July / August 2020, when Earth and Mars will be well positioned to land on Mars.
The mission takes a new step in answering questions about the potential of life on Mars by looking not only for signs of past Mars living conditions, but also looking for signs of past microbial life.
First published: September 08, 2018 12:41 PM IST
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