NASA Releases Footage of "Flying Saucer" Braking Test, Declares Success 55
According to the AP, in a story carried by the San Jose Mercury News, NASA engineers insisted Friday that a test of a vehicle they hope to one day use on Mars achieved most of its objectives, despite a parachute that virtually disintegrated the moment it deployed. The engineers laid out at a news conference what they've learned in the six weeks since the $150 million high-altitude test of a vehicle that's designed to bring spacecraft -- and eventually astronauts -- safely to Mars. Engineers said they achieved the main objective: getting a flying saucer-shaped craft to 190,000 feet above the Earth at more than four times the speed of sound under test conditions that matched the Martian atmosphere. Ars Technica has (beautiful, high-speed, high-definition) video of the test that shows the parachute tearing itself apart, as well as the many parts that went as planned.
i brake for flying saucers (Score:4, Funny)
Units (Score:5, Funny)
190000 feet = 57912 meters.
Just helping NASA to prevent getting their units mixed up again.
New program announcement: EARTH ONE (Score:0, Funny)
EARTH ONE is a simple program: stay on earth until you die. Unfortunately, no way has been figured out yet how to get you away from earth and back to earth. Therefore you will have to die there. Your possibility of being a reality-tv star is very low compared from mars, as the program is being conducted by lots of people, but apparently it also has some charm, as most of the most famous men of the last 100 years participated in that program.
Re:Keep believing, nerds (Score:4, Funny)
I'm no doctor, but I think you may be undervaluing the contributions of food and oxygen.