Parachute blip fails to blight Mars test mission
Print Edition
A saucer-shaped NASA vehicle testing new technology for Mars landings made a successful rocket ride over the Pacific, but its massive descent parachute only partially unfurled.
The Low Density Supersonic Decelerator was lifted by balloon 36,575 meters into the air from the Hawaiian island of Kauai. The vehicle then rocketed even higher before deploying a novel inflatable braking system.
But cheers rapidly died on Saturday as a gigantic chute designed to slow its fall to splashdown in the ocean emerged tangled. Still, NASA officials said it’s a pretty good test of technology that might one day be used to deliver heavy spacecraft — and eventually astronauts — to Mars.
Since the twin Viking spacecraft landed on the red planet in 1976, NASA has relied on the same parachute design to slow landers and rovers after piercing through the thin Martian atmosphere.
Despite small problems like the giant parachute not deploying fully, NASA deemed the US$150-million experimental flight mission a success.
“What we just saw was a really good test,” said NASA engineer Dan Coatta with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.
Viewers around the world with an Internet connection followed portions of the mission in real time thanks to cameras on board the vehicle that beamed back low-resolution footage.
The test was postponed six times because of high winds. Winds need to be calm so that the balloon doesn’t stray into no-fly zones. Engineers planned to analyze the data and conduct several more flights next year before deciding whether to fly the vehicle and parachute on a future Mars mission.
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