NASA successfully launched a flying saucer-like inflatable heat shield — and it could one day help humans land on Mars.
The Low-Earth Orbit Flight Test of an Inflatable Decelerator, or LOFTID, launched from a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.
The mission was to test the aeroshell, or heat shield, technology needed to land people on Mars for crewed missions, or larger robotic missions on Venus or Saturn’s moon Titan, CNN reported.
Currently, it’s a challenge to send robotic or human missions to planets with an atmosphere since current heat shields depend on the size of a rocket’s shroud.
LOFTID made its way to low-Earth orbit, which is less than 1,200 miles from Earth’s surface, at 4:49 a.m. EST at supersonic speeds. It inflated and started its descent back to Earth at 6:34 a.m. EST.
The mission was originally set for Nov. 1, but was delayed due to a faulty battery on the rocket’s upper stage. The battery was then replaced and retested for the new launch date.
The shield is expected to be recovered from the Pacific Ocean east of Hawaii, where it had a soft landing thanks to its parachute, in about two days by an offshore vessel called Kahana II.
NASA’s hope for the mission is to be able to use the heat shield as a brake to slow down spacecrafts when entering Mars’ atmosphere. When a rocket enters an atmosphere, aerodynamic forces help to slow it down before landing.
However, there’s a bigger challenge when trying to land spacecrafts on Mars due to the atmosphere being significantly less dense than Earth’s. The atmosphere on Mars is thick enough to have some drag to slow down, but too thin to decelerate a spacecraft sooner, so extra assistance is necessary. LOFTID will create more drag in the upper atmosphere to help a rocket slow down quicker and prevent some heating.
Sensors on the heat shield will record its experience during its descent and cameras are set to take video of the mission, Joe Del Corso, LOFTID project manager at NASA’s Langley Research Center, said.
LOFTID launched alongside another separate mission — the Joint Polar Satellite System-2, or JPSS-2, a polar satellite to improve weather forecasting. The satellite is designed to collect data to help predict extreme weather events.