[meteorite-list] NASA's LDSD Project Completes Second Experimental Test Flight

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Tue, 9 Jun 2015 13:11:57 -0700 (PDT)
Message-ID: <201506092011.t59KBv5X022768_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=4618

NASA's LDSD Project Completes Second Experimental Test Flight
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
June 9, 2015

Engineers are poring over the data following the second experimental landing
technology test of NASA's Low-Density Supersonic Decelerator (LDSD) project.
The saucer-shaped LDSD craft splashed down at 11:49 a.m. HST (2:49 PDT/5:49
p.m. EDT) Monday in the Pacific Ocean off the west coast of the Hawaiian
island of Kauai.

During this flight, the project team tested two decelerator technologies
that could enable larger payloads to land safely on the surface of Mars,
and allow access to more of the planet's surface by assisting landings
at higher-altitude sites.

"Developing and demonstrating entry, descent and landing technologies
such as supersonic decelerators is critical to enabling our journey to
Mars," said Steve Jurczyk, associate administrator for the Space Technology
Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "The technologies
tested on LDSD are giving us data and insight into the capabilities we'll
need to land more mass than we currently can on Mars, which will enable
more capable robotic missions, as well as human precursor missions to
the Red Planet."

A high-altitude balloon carrying the LDSD test vehicle launched at 7:45
a.m. from the U.S. Navy's Pacific Missile Range Facility (PMRF) on Kauai.
As planned, at 11:35 a.m., the vehicle separated from the balloon at about
120,000 feet above the ocean. An onboard rocket motor then took the vehicle
to 180,000 feet, where the first braking technology, the Supersonic Inflatable
Aerodynamic Decelerator (SIAD), deployed at about Mach 3 at 11:37 a.m.

Fourteen seconds after SIAD inflation, the test vehicle's parachute was
released into the supersonic slipstream, according to plan. Preliminary
analysis of imagery and other data received during the test indicates
the Supersonic Ringsail parachute deployed. This 100-foot-wide parachute
is the largest supersonic parachute ever flown. It has more than double
the area of the parachute used for the Mars Science Laboratory mission
that carried the Curiosity rover to the surface of Mars. The chute began
to generate large amounts of drag and a tear appeared in the canopy at
about the time it was fully inflated.

"Early indications are that we got what we came for, new and actionable
data on our parachute design," said Mark Adler, project manager for LDSD
at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. "At present,
our data is in the form of low-resolution video and some other nuggets
of data which were downlinked in real-time. But this will soon change
when our test vehicle makes port, and we have the opportunity to inspect
the ultra-high resolution, high-speed imagery and other comprehensive
information carried in the memory cards on board our saucer."

Monday's flight test was the second for the project. During the first
flight on June 28, 2014, the main goal was to demonstrate and operate
the vehicle through its entire mission. That flight also carried the two
LDSD braking technologies, and the SIAD worked perfectly during the first
test. However, the supersonic parachute did not inflate as designed. With
the data from last year's test, the LDSD team developed a new formula
for this year's chute, making it stronger and more curved into its top
to help it survive the initial shock of supersonic wind.

"The physics involved with LDSD is so cutting-edge we learn something
profound every time we test," said Ian Clark, principal investigator for
LDSD at JPL. "Going into this year's flight, I wanted to see that the
parachute opened further than it did last year before it began to rupture.
The limited data set we have at present indicates we may not only have
gone well down the road to full inflation, but we may have achieved it.

"We also saw another successful inflation of our 20-foot SIAD and another
successful deployment and inflation of our supersonic ballute [an inflatable
drag device that extracts the parachute]. Both of those devices have now
had two great flights, and we have matured them to the point where they
can be used, with confidence, on future missions," Clark added. "We're
not just pushing the envelope. We flew a 7,000-pound test vehicle right
through it."

NASA expects to make high-resolution imagery and comprehensive data from
the test available to the public in about two weeks.

NASA's Space Technology Mission Directorate funds the LDSD mission, a
cooperative effort led by JPL. The Technology Demonstration Mission Program
at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, manages
LDSD. NASA's Wallops Flight Facility, on Wallops Island, Virginia, coordinates
range and safety support with PMRF and provides the balloon systems for
the LDSD test.

For more information on LDSD, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/ldsd

For more information on NASA's Space Technology Mission Directorate, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/spacetech


Media Contact

DC Agle
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
818-393-9011
agle at jpl.nasa.gov

Joshua Buck
NASA Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1130
jbuck at nasa.gov

Kim Newton
Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala.
256-653-5173
kimberly.d.newton at nasa.gov

2015-197
Received on Tue 09 Jun 2015 04:11:57 PM PDT