NASA's Saucer-Shaped Craft Preps for Flight Test
A saucer-shaped test vehicle holding equipment for
landing large payloads on Mars is shown in the Missile Assembly Building at the
US Navy's Pacific Missile Range Facility in Kaua‘i, Hawaii.
In this picture, NASA’s saucer-shaped experimental
flight vehicle is prepared for a Range Compatibility Test at the US Navy’s
Pacific Missile Range Facility in Kaua‘i, Hawaii.
An engineer works on the Parachute Deployment
Device of the Low Density Supersonic Decelerator test vehicle in this image
taken at the Missile Assembly Building at the US Navy's Pacific Missile Range
Facility in Kaua‘i, Hawaii.
Feature Link:
NASA's Low-Density Supersonic Decelerator (LDSD) project, a rocket-powered,
saucer-shaped test vehicle, has completed final assembly at the U.S. Navy's
Pacific Missile Range Facility in Kauai, Hawaii.
This experimental flight test is designed to investigate breakthrough
technologies that will benefit future Mars missions, including those involving
human exploration. Three weeks of testing, simulations and rehearsals are
planned before the first launch opportunity on the morning of June 3. LDSD was
built at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, and shipped to
Kauai for final assembly and preparations.
"Our Supersonic Flight Dynamics Test Vehicle number 1 arrived at the Navy's
Pacific Missile Range Facility on April 17," said Mark Adler, project manager of
the Low Density Supersonic Decelerator project from JPL. "Since then, we have
been preparing it for flight. One of the last big assemblies occurred on April
30, when we mated the vehicle with its Star-48 booster rocket."
During the June experimental flight test, a balloon will carry the test
vehicle from the Hawaii Navy facility to an altitude of about 120,000 feet.
There, it will be dropped and its booster rocket will quickly kick in and carry
it to 180,000 feet, accelerating to Mach 4. Once in the very rarified air high
above the Pacific, the saucer will begin a series of automated tests of two
breakthrough technologies.
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.
The upper layers of Earth’s stratosphere are the most similar environment
available to match the properties of the thin atmosphere of Mars. The Low
Density Supersonic Decelerator mission developed this test method to ensure the
best prospects for effective testing of the new and improved technologies here
on Earth.
Anyone with Internet access will be able to watch live as video from the June
test is relayed from the vehicle to the ground. The low-resolution images from
the saucer are expected to show the vehicle dropping away from its high-altitude
balloon mothership and then rocketing up to the very edge of the stratosphere.
The test vehicle will then deploy an inflatable Kevlar tube around itself,
called the Supersonic Inflatable Aerodynamic Decelerator (SIAD). After the SIAD
inflates, the test vehicle will deploy a mammoth parachute called the Supersonic
Disk Sail Parachute.
While people watching at home may be fascinated by how these two new
technologies operate, the NASA flight team will actually be concentrating on a
more fundamental question – "Will the test vehicle work as planned?"
"This first test is a true experimental flight test," said Ian Clark, the
LDSD principal investigator from JPL. "Our goal is to get this first-of-its-kind
test vehicle to operate correctly at very high speeds and very high altitudes.
"
Although there is no guarantee that this first test will be successful,
regardless of the outcome, the LDSD team expects to learn a great deal from the
test. NASA has two more saucer-shaped test vehicles in the pipeline, with plans
to test them from Hawaii in summer of 2015.
"We are pushing the envelope on what we know," said Clark. "We are accepting
higher risk with these test flights than we would with a space mission, such as
the Mars Science Laboratory. We will learn a great deal even if these tests,
conducted here in Earth's atmosphere at relatively low cost, fail to meet some
of the mission objectives."
As NASA plans increasingly ambitious robotic missions to Mars, laying the
groundwork for even more complex human science expeditions to come, the
spacecraft needed to land safely on the Red Planet's surface will become larger
and heavier. This new technology will enable those important missions.
More information about LDSD is at:
NASA's Space Technology Mission Directorate in Washington funds the LDSD
mission, a cooperative effort led by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in
Pasadena, California. JPL is home to the LDSD project manager, Mark Adler, and
its principal investigator, Ian Clark. NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, in
Huntsville, Alabama, manages LDSD within the Technology Demonstration Mission
Program Office. NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia is coordinating
support with the Pacific Missile Range Facility and providing the balloon
systems for the LDSD test.
NASA's 'Flying Saucer' Readies for First Test Flight
NASA's flying saucer-shaped test vehicle is ready to take to the skies from
the U.S. Navy's Pacific Missile Range Facility in Kauai, Hawaii, for its first
engineering shakeout flight.
The first launch opportunity for the test vehicle is June 3, when the launch
window opens at 8:30 a.m. HST. The test will be carried live on NASA TV and
streamed on the Web. The Low Density Supersonic Decelerator (LDSD) will gather
data about landing heavy payloads on Mars and other planetary surfaces.
"The agency is moving forward and getting ready for Mars as part of NASA's
Evolvable Mars campaign," said Michael Gazarik, associate administrator for
Space Technology at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "We fly, we learn, we fly
again. We have two more vehicles in the works for next year."
As NASA plans increasingly ambitious robotic missions to Mars, laying the
groundwork for even more complex human science expeditions to come,
accommodating extended stays for explorers on the Martian surface will require
larger and heavier spacecraft.
The objective of the LDSD project is to see if the cutting-edge,
rocket-powered test vehicle operates as it was designed -- in near-space at high
Mach numbers.
"After years of imagination, engineering and hard work, we soon will get to
see our Keiki o ka honua, our 'boy from Earth,' show us its stuff," said Mark
Adler, project manager for the Low Density Supersonic Decelerator at NASA's Jet
Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California. "The success of this
experimental test flight will be measured by the success of the test vehicle to
launch and fly its flight profile as advertised. If our flying saucer hits its
speed and altitude targets, it will be a great day."
The way NASA's saucer climbs to test altitude is almost as distinctive as the
test vehicle itself.
"We use a helium balloon -- that, when fully inflated, would fit snugly into
Pasadena's Rose Bowl -- to lift our vehicle to 120,000 feet," said Adler. "From
there we drop it for about one and a half seconds. After that, it's all about
going higher and faster -- and then it's about putting on the brakes."
A fraction of a second after dropping from the balloon, and a few feet below
it, four small rocket motors will fire to spin up and gyroscopically stabilize
the saucer. A half second later, a Star 48B long-nozzle, solid-fueled rocket
engine will kick in with 17,500 pounds of thrust, sending the test vehicle to
the edge of the stratosphere.
"Our goal is to get to an altitude and velocity which simulates the kind of
environment one of our vehicles would encounter when it would fly in the Martian
atmosphere," said Ian Clark, principal investigator of the LDSD project at JPL.
"We top out at about 180,000 feet and Mach 4. Then, as we slow down to Mach 3.8,
we deploy the first of two new atmospheric braking systems."
The project management team decided also to fly the two supersonic
decelerator technologies that will be thoroughly tested during two LDSD flight
tests next year.
If this year's test vehicle flies as expected, the LDSD team may get a
treasure-trove of data on how the 6-meter supersonic inflatable aerodynamic
decelerator (SIAD-R) and the supersonic parachute operate a full year ahead of
schedule.
The SIAD-R, essentially an inflatable doughnut that increases the vehicle's
size and, as a result, its drag, is deployed at about Mach 3.8. It will quickly
slow the vehicle to Mach 2.5 where the parachute, the largest supersonic
parachute ever flown, first hits the supersonic flow. About 45 minutes later,
the saucer is expected to make a controlled landing onto the Pacific Ocean off
Hawaii.
NASA TV will carry live images and commentary of LDSD engineering test. The
test vehicle itself carries several onboard cameras. It is expected that video
of selected portions of the test, including the rocket-powered ascent, will be
downlinked during the commentary. Websites streaming live video of the test
include:
and
For more information about LDSD, visit:
NASA's Space Technology Mission Directorate in Washington funds the LDSD
mission, a cooperative effort led by JPL. NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in
Huntsville, Alabama, manages LDSD within the Technology Demonstration Mission
Program Office. NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia is coordinating
support with the Pacific Missile Range Facility and providing the balloon
systems for the LDSD test.
-end-
NASA
Guillermo Gonzalo Sánchez Achutegui
