Historically, NASA has used
decelerators to slow down space vessels as they prepare to land on Earth.
Housed within the vessels, these decelerators generate drag and limit
acceleration, working like a parachute.
NASA wants to ensure that
decelerators used in future space missions will work in extreme conditions and
withstand packing and compression. In order to achieve this, the agency created
a scaled-down version of its latest Hypersonic Inflatable Aerodynamic
Decelerator, or HIAD, design to ensure that it will be able to tolerate the
packing process.
Using a vacuum pump, NASA
engineers were able to squeeze the 3-meter, donut-shaped inflatable into a
vastly smaller space, an important quality considering the space premium in
vessels. They then packed and unpacked it multiple times, checking for tears in
its Zylon and Teflon materials at every step in the process. ALLOWING FOR A
SLOW DESCENT
The HIAD being compressed by
engineers. Credit: NASA
Engineers at NASA foresee the
viability of this technology in delivery of heavy cargo, science instruments,
and people to other worlds. It could even be used to recover cargo from the
International Space Station and return it to Earth.
According to Langley test
engineer, Sean Hancock, HIAD was packed the same way each time to see how the
material would handle folding, packing, and compressing. In doing so engineers
develop a better understanding of how it would perform after exposure to
handling, storage, and deployment during a space flight mission. This
development is also of great concern to NASA, as it anticipates future
missions, especially manned ones, will require heavier vessels and ships. While
a parachute has been used to bring down the Curiosity rover through the Martian
atmosphere, a spacecraft containing astronauts and other materials could weigh
30 times more, necessitating better decelerators.
The HIAD would allow a slower
descent of any vehicle through the atmosphere during future missions. In
addition, the technology will protect the craft from the intense heat on the
journey down. HIAD lead engineer, Keith Johnson, explained that the small test
donut contained all the components for the latest design. This test should
allow NASA to develop a bigger prototype and bring us one step closer to settling the Red Planet.
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