Scientists are testing out a new supersonic parachute at the Naval Air Weapon Station in China Lake, California for the upcoming missions to Mars. Because NASA’s Curiosity Rover had a rough landing on Mars back in 2012, and the equipment used in future missions to the red planet will be even larger, they had to come up with more advanced ways of slowing down during the descent to land on the surface.
Scientists are testing out a new supersonic parachute at the Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake in California for the upcoming missions to Mars.
While NASA’s Curiosity Rover had a stressful but successful landing on Mars back in 2012, the equipment used in future missions to the red planet will be even larger, so scientists have to come up with more advanced ways of slowing down the descent in order to land on the surface.
The low-density supersonic decelerator they created is too big to be tested in their wind tunnels or other facilities, so NASA used a complex system to simulate what it would be like for the parachute to work in the thinner atmosphere of our neighboring planet.
To accomplish this, a series of actions had to be carried out in sequence involving many parts including a Night Hawk helicopter, rockets, a sled, a winch, long ropes, and a steel weight .
While it was being pulled down by the rocket sled during the test, the parachute ripped.
But according to the researchers it was a successful test, because the point is to find flaws in the design and fix them before the equipment is used on another planet.
