Hours after the June 28, 2014, test of NASA's
Low-Density Supersonic Decelerator over the U.S. Navy's Pacific Missile Range,
the saucer-shaped test vehicle is lifted aboard the Kahana recovery vessel.
Image Credit:
NASA/JPL-Caltech
Hours after the June 28, 2014, test of NASA's
Low-Density Supersonic Decelerator over the U.S. Navy's Pacific Missile Range,
two members of the Navy's Explosive Ordinance Disposal swim towards the test
vehicle. In the background, the recovery vessel Mana'o II.
Image Credit:
NASA/JPL-Caltech
The LDSD test vehicle is unseen at the tip of the
slash-like contrail at the upper left of this image. Just to the right of the
contrail, and about a third of the way up, is the balloon that carried the
saucer.
Image Credit:
NASA/JPL-Caltech
The first "flown" test vehicle of Low-Density
Supersonic Decelerator project relaxes aboard the recovery vessel
Kahana.
Image Credit:
NASA/JPL-Caltech
Hours after its successful engineering flight, the
first test vehicle for NASA's Low-Density Supersonic Decelerator project is
lifted aboard the recovery vessel Kahana.
Image Credit:
NASA/JPL-Caltech
NASA representatives participated in a media teleconference this morning to
discuss the June 28, 2014 near-space test flight of the agency's Low-Density
Supersonic Decelerator (LDSD), which occurred off the coast of the U.S. Navy's
Pacific Missile Range Facility in Kauai, Hawaii.
A high-altitude balloon launch occurred at 8:45 a.m. HST (11:45 a.m. PDT/2:45
p.m. EDT) from the Hawaiian island facility. At 11:05 a.m. HST (2:05 p.m.
PDT/5:05 p.m. EDT), the LDSD test vehicle dropped away from the balloon as
planned and began powered flight. The balloon and test vehicle were about
120,000 feet over the Pacific Ocean at the time of the drop. The vehicle
splashed down in the ocean at approximately 11:35 a.m. HST (2:35 p.m. PDT/5:35
p.m. EDT), after the engineering test flight concluded. The test vehicle
hardware, black box data recorder and parachute were all recovered later in the
day.
"We are thrilled about yesterday's test," said Mark Adler, project manager
for LDSD at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. "The test
vehicle worked beautifully, and we met all of our flight objectives. We have
recovered all the vehicle hardware and data recorders and will be able to apply
all of the lessons learned from this information to our future flights."
This test was the first of three planned for the LDSD project, developed to
evaluate new landing technologies for future Mars missions. While this initial
test was designed to determine the flying ability of the vehicle, it also
deployed two new landing technologies as a bonus. Those landing technologies
will be officially tested in the next two flights, involving clones of the
saucer-shaped vehicle.
"Because our vehicle flew so well, we had the chance to earn 'extra credit'
points with the Supersonic Inflatable Aerodynamic Decelerator [SIAD]," said Ian
Clark, principal investigator for LDSD at JPL. "All indications are that the
SIAD deployed flawlessly, and because of that, we got the opportunity to test
the second technology, the enormous supersonic parachute, which is almost a year
ahead of schedule."
The Supersonic Inflatable Aerodynamic Decelerator (SIAD) is a large,
doughnut-shaped first deceleration technology that deployed during the flight.
The second is an enormous parachute (the Supersonic Disk Sail Parachute).
Imagery downlinked in real-time from the test vehicle indicates that the
parachute did not deploy as expected, and the team is still analyzing data on
the parachute so that lessons learned can be applied for the next test flights,
scheduled for early next year.
In order to get larger payloads to Mars, and to pave the way for future human
explorers, cutting-edge technologies like LDSD are critical. Among other
applications, this new space technology will enable delivery of the supplies and
materials needed for long-duration missions to the Red Planet.
"This entire effort was just fantastic work by the whole team and is a proud
moment for NASA's Space Technology Mission Directorate," said Dorothy Rasco,
deputy associate administrator for the Space Technology Mission Directorate at
NASA Headquarters in Washington. "This flight reminds us why NASA takes on hard
technical problems, and why we test - to learn and build the tools we will need
for the future of space exploration. Technology drives exploration, and
yesterday's flight is a perfect example of the type of technologies we are
developing to explore our solar system."
NASA's Space Technology Mission Directorate funds the LDSD mission, a
cooperative effort led by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena,
California. NASA's Technology Demonstration Mission program manages LDSD at
NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. NASA's Wallops
Flight Facility in Wallops Island, Virginia, coordinated support with the
Pacific Missile Range Facility and provided the balloon systems for the LDSD
test.
For more information about the LDSD space technology demonstration misión:
For more information about the Space Technology Mission Directorate, visit:
The follow-along page from the media teleconference can be found at:
NASA prueba "platillo volador" que podría llevar humanos a Marte
La agencia espacial lanzó a la atmósfera terrestre un "platillo volador" que le permite probar tecnologías con las que algún día espera transportar a humanos a Marte, en un ensayo que concluyó con éxito cuando la enorme nave con forma de disco cayó en el lugar esperado en el Océano Pacífico.
El Desacelerador Supersónico de Baja Densidad (LDSD, en sus siglas en inglés), más conocido como "platillo volador" incluso al interior de la NASA, fue lanzado hacia la atmósfera la mañana del sábado desde la isla hawaiana de Kauai, adherido a un globo gigantesco.
Pese a que el paracaídas de la nave no se desplegó del todo al concluir la misión, la NASA fue capaz de recuperar el "platillo" a la hora prevista de la misma tarde, cuando el disco se desprendió del globo y cayó al océano.
La misión, valorada en 150 millones de dólares, busca generar una alternativa a las tecnologías desarrolladas hace décadas que la agencia espacial estadounidense sigue usando para sus vuelos de exploración a Marte, con el fin de poder enviar algún día humanos al planeta rojo.
El vuelo levantó el LDSD a unos 36.000 metros de altura, donde el globo de helio se desprendió del platillo justo cuando un cohete adherido a la nave se prendía, lo que impulsó el gigantesco disco hasta los 54.000 metros de altura al cuádruple de la velocidad del sonido.
Eso permitió probar la reacción del vehículo a la atmósfera propia de Marte, que es similar a la de los 54.000 metros de altura.
Una vez completado el ascenso, el disco desplegó una especie de paracaídas para ralentizar su descenso a la Tierra y tres horas más tarde cayó en el Océano Pacífico.
La NASA planea hacer próximamente más vuelos para seguir probando la resistencia del aparato, pero hoy declaró la misión un éxito.
"Queremos probar esta tecnología aquí, porque es más barato, para estar seguros de que va a funcionar antes de enviarla a Marte", señaló a principios de este mes el responsable del proyecto, Mark Adler.
TENDENCIAS La Tercera.
Guillermo Gonzalo Sánchez Achutegui
ayabaca@gmail.com
ayabaca@Hotmail.com
ayabaca@yahoo.com
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