NASA Launched an Inflatable Flying Saucer, Then Landed It in the Ocean (nytimes.com) 24
On Thursday morning, NASA sent a giant inflatable device to space and then brought it back down from orbit, splashing in the ocean near Hawaii. From a report: You might think of it as a bouncy castle from space, although the people in charge of the mission would prefer you did not. "I would say that would be inaccurate," Neil Cheatwood, principal investigator for the Low-Earth Orbit Flight Test of an Inflatable Decelerator, or LOFTID for short, said of the comparison during an interview. LOFTID may sound like just an amusing trick, but the $93 million project demonstrates an intriguing technology that could help NASA in its goal of getting people safely to the surface of Mars someday. The agency has landed a series of robotic spacecraft on Mars, but the current approaches only work for payloads weighing up to about 1.5 tons -- about the bulk of a small car. That is inadequate for the larger landers, carrying 20 tons or more, that are needed for people and the supplies they will need to survive on the red planet.
A more accurate description of the device might be that it is a saucer, 20 feet wide when inflated. It is made of layers of fabric that can survive falling into the atmosphere at 18,000 miles per hour and temperatures close to 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit. Still, an inflatable heat shield shares a key characteristic with a bouncy castle: Uninflated, it can be folded and packed tightly. LOFTID fit in a cylinder a bit over four feet wide and one and a half feet high. For a traditional rigid heat shield, there is no way to cram something 20 feet in diameter into a rocket that is not that wide. A larger surface like LOFTID's generates much more air friction -- essentially it is a better brake as it slices through the upper atmosphere, and the greater drag allows heavier payloads to be slowed down. For future Mars missions, the inflatable heat shield would be combined with other systems like parachutes and retrorockets to guide the lander en route to a soft landing.
A more accurate description of the device might be that it is a saucer, 20 feet wide when inflated. It is made of layers of fabric that can survive falling into the atmosphere at 18,000 miles per hour and temperatures close to 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit. Still, an inflatable heat shield shares a key characteristic with a bouncy castle: Uninflated, it can be folded and packed tightly. LOFTID fit in a cylinder a bit over four feet wide and one and a half feet high. For a traditional rigid heat shield, there is no way to cram something 20 feet in diameter into a rocket that is not that wide. A larger surface like LOFTID's generates much more air friction -- essentially it is a better brake as it slices through the upper atmosphere, and the greater drag allows heavier payloads to be slowed down. For future Mars missions, the inflatable heat shield would be combined with other systems like parachutes and retrorockets to guide the lander en route to a soft landing.
Well now (Score:2)
That must be what abducted me.
Re: That must be what abducted me. (Score:3)
Wrong blow-up. More like... [amazon.com]
Re: (Score:1)
I apologize if I offended you. Wasn't intended. Many of us would be interested in an account of your encounter(s), if it doesn't bring back difficult memories. I decided a decade+ ago not to make a judgement call on authenticity of such claims.
Note that I suspect Black Parrot was joking, because the article is about a rubber ("fake") UFO, and the title makes that clear.
trolls (Score:2)
Why are you feeding the trolls? You owe no one an apology.
Messin' with them on purpose? (Score:1)
"Imagine all the UFO reports we triggered in the Navy! *snicker* *snort*
Delivering the Loc-Nar in style! (Score:2)
Also reminds me of MOOSE [astronautix.com], that would be a hell of a thrill-ride! But you'd never get me up in one of those things unless you put a bear in it [iflscience.com] first.
Re: (Score:1)
"it was a weather balloon"
Stolen Tech (Score:3)
It was stolen Tech [youtu.be] from Dr. Noah aka Jimmy Bond [fandom.com]
The big question is... (Score:2)
Nothing new (Score:2)
SpaceX envy (Score:2)
Re:SpaceX envy (Score:5, Insightful)
I doubt it. The article requires an account to read, but I believe this is a an inflatable aerobrake for a re-entry/landing module. The booster are already LONG out of the picture at that point.
Besides which, NASA isn't actually in the rocket business. At all. They hire other people to build and (often) operate them, SpaceX is just the latest player on the scene, and they're making everyone else look like the incompetent, money-grubbing parasites they have become.
NASA has two main missions: Do science in space, and develop technology that's too expensive with too risky a payoff for private industry to invest in, to get it to the point that they can hire someone in private industry to incorporate it into a complete working system they can buy.
Compression heating (Score:2)
Speaking of aero braking, can we at Slashdot retire the misconception that the heat during aero braking is generated by friction.
It is generated by compression heating in the hypersonic shock wave.
https://www.rocketryforum.com/... [rocketryforum.com]
Yeah, yeah and yeah, friction plays a supporting role in the fluid-flow equations to shape the solution. But the heat generated during reentry is nothing like the heat generated by automobile brake pads rubbing against the brake rotor.
P V = n R T, bay-bee!
Aerobraking (Score:2)
They're talking about Aerobraking.
If you want to see what it would be like, check out the film 2010: The Year We Make Contact. [youtube.com]
Re: (Score:2)
So, not like the landing scene [youtube.com] from The Red Planet.
That's not flying.... (Score:2)
Obligatory:
That's not flying, it's falling with style!
A test for the new UFO research team? (Score:2)
NASA recently launched a new team to study UFOs. Maybe this was a test? Did they identify it as a UFO, or did they just identify it?
https://www.npr.org/2022/10/22... [npr.org]
Maybe tie it to the SLS to get the SLS in the air? (Score:2)
Lifting it just a couple feet above the earth's surface would be a $23 billion dollar achievement.
Next it's to be used to subdue prisoners (Score:2)
On a top secret island that specializes in housing security risks.
Enter Rover
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
Comment (Score:2)