It has a diameter of six meters and is made up of an outer fabric with intertwined ceramic threads and two layers of insulating fabric that retain heat
NASA is carrying out a mission that could change many things both in the exploration of the planets and in the activities of returning to Earth. An Atlas V rocket will carry along with the JPSS-2 environmental satellite a kind of flying saucer which it will then release by favoring its descent into the atmosphere at high speed.
The problem of landing on the surface of a planet
Landing on planets has always been one of the most difficult tasks to tackle. Just think that almost half of the probes sent to Mars by the United States or in the past by Russia and recently also by the European ESA have ended badly especially in the final stage of arrival. The Martian atmosphere has a very low density (one hundredth of Earth’s) and this poses problems because it slows down the vehicle less than diving into the denser Earth’s atmosphere. Now we are experimenting with an innovation that should be more effective than the systems used up to now, ie solid protective heat shields. NASA’s Langley Center has developed this inflatable system which it opens before the re-entry of the atmosphere e protects his precious cargo of tools up to the planetary (or Earth) surface.
The Loftid test
For at least ten years, NASA (and ESA has also carried out some studies) has been carrying out research on this frontier also by launching small demonstrators with which it has learned to deal with the various obstacles. Now throw Loftid (Low-Eart Orbit Flight Test of an Inflatable Decelarator) a vehicle that will detach from the Atlas V rocket around which a light structure will inflate that will protect it from entering the earth’s atmosphere. Here in the deceleration will develop for the friction a temperature around 1,600 degrees centigrade that we have to deal with. You may remember the shuttle Columbia which, on February 1, 2003, as it returned from space, disintegrated in the Texas sky because its protective shield was damaged during launch. The heat flash had left no escape for the spacecraft and the astronauts on board.
How the «shield» is made
The screen (aeroshell) that NASA experiments has a diameter of six meters and is formed by four parts. There’s a external fabric formed by intertwined ceramic threads under which two layers of insulating fabric have been placed which retain the heat not disposed of by the external surface. Together protect a system of rings of different diameters manufactured with a synthetic polymer ten times stronger than steel. These rings are inflated with an inert gas and help stabilize the re-entry trajectory. Loftd will go from a speed of 8 kilometers per second down to zero as it lands on the ocean surface, slowed in the last stage by parachutes.
Bigger loads
The inflatable system allows it to be transported more easily and being larger it can slow down the vehicle already at higher altitudes, facilitating operations. This will make it possible to carry larger loads up to inhabited capsules. All at lower costs. Therefore an ideal solution in all respects, facilitating the landings on the planets and the return to Earth.