NASA To Test Inflatable Donut For Landing On Mars 38
An anonymous reader writes: When NASA has put rovers on the surface of Mars, they've relied heavily on parachutes to get through the atmosphere safely. Aerobraking doesn't work as well as it does on Earth because Mars's atmosphere is so thin. Parachuting runs into the same problem, but it's easier to pack a bigger chute than it is to bring along a bigger heat shield. But NASA has been working on that exact problem, and they'll soon test the Low-Density Supersonic Decelerator (LDSD), which looks an awful lot like a giant, inflatable donut. When a spacecraft is ready to enter an atmosphere, the LDSD will inflate along its outside edge, substantially increasing its surface area while not adding too much weight. Weather has postponed the test a couple times already, but NASA hopes to complete it on Monday.
Oh? (Score:3, Funny)
A lander with a sore arse?
Re:Oh? (Score:5, Informative)
A lander with a sore arse?
A writer with a sore arse. Here is one choice paragraph:
Here is the problem. The Curiosity lander had a mass of 900 kg (1 ton). What happens when you want to have a larger mass payload? Maybe you want to land humans on Mars. If you double the mass of the payload, you need to double the area of the parachute. Curiosity used a parachute 15 meters in diameter. If you doubled the mass, you would need a parachute 60 meters in diameter.
The first four sentences are complete non-sequiturs. The next three display a profound lack of basic math skills. The rest of the article is no better. That's what passes for "science writer" at Wired, it seems.
Inflated with... (Score:3)
... delicious jelly or Boston creme?
Latter Day Saints Donut? (Score:4, Funny)
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
I believe NASA did all of its LSD testing back in the 60's...
Ah yes, the days of jumping head first out of 5 story windows.
Re: (Score:2)
Ah yes, the days of jumping head first out of 5 story windows.
Citation needed. Oh wait, it never happened [wikipedia.org], so you're unlikely to get a citation.
Well that took all of a minute http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P... [wikipedia.org]
They coulda got ... (Score:2)
... a free one yesterday.
Typical NASA (Score:2)
Donuts: Is there anything they can't do? (Score:1)
--Homer
I watched the first robot land in a large ball (Score:2)
Broadcst from JPL, over the com system it was announced it's still rolling, still rolling (nervous laughter), still rolling, ok forgot to account for Doppler, it's stopped now.
(Mars was receding from us).
Mmm ... (Score:2)
Mmm [wikia.com] ... Low-Density Supersonic Decelerator. (drool)
Re: (Score:2)
Approved (Score:2)
This submission has been approved by Homer Simpson.
Obligatory (Score:1)
I would think this would be more useful for... Uranus.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Second test (Score:1)
This is their second test of this device.
The first time they tested it, the parachute that was supposed to deploy shredded to pieces.
Video of the last test here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
The key question is: (Score:2)
How does it taste?
First words from mars landing (Score:2)
Ich bin ein berliner.