NASA tested an experimental inflatable heat shield yesterday that scientists say could help humans safely land on Mars.
Apart from other concerns, one important question scientists want to answer is: how not to crash on the Red Planet.
NASA launched the Low-Earth Orbit Flight Test of an Inflatable Decelerator (LOFTID) from the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. The space agency sent two separate missions on a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket.
The LOFTID aeroshell made its way to low-Earth orbit, where it successfully inflated and descended back to the surface. The heat shield is expected to be retrieved from the Pacific Ocean, east of Hawaii.
Inflatable heat shields play a vital role in space missions involving living beings and large robotic equipment, protecting them from the high temperature the vessel would face while entering another planet’s atmosphere.