Test results from NASA saucer Mars landing test
NASA has released video and test results from the first test flight of its Low-Density Supersonic Decelerator (LDSD), referred by many press outlets as a “flying saucer” because of its shape.
The purpose of the test was to see if the saucer and its parachute would work to slow a vessel down sufficiently in the Martian atmosphere. The parachute tore and failed. The video describes the flight and the failure and how the data from this failure can now be used to modify the parachute for the next two test flights.
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NASA has released video and test results from the first test flight of its Low-Density Supersonic Decelerator (LDSD), referred by many press outlets as a “flying saucer” because of its shape.
The purpose of the test was to see if the saucer and its parachute would work to slow a vessel down sufficiently in the Martian atmosphere. The parachute tore and failed. The video describes the flight and the failure and how the data from this failure can now be used to modify the parachute for the next two test flights.
The support of my readers through the years has given me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Four years ago, just before the 2020 election I wrote that Joe Biden's mental health was suspect. Only in the past two weeks has the mainstream media decided to recognize that basic fact.
Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Even today NASA and Congress refuses to recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are five ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation:
5. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
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You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above. And if you buy the books through the ebookit links, I get a larger cut and I get it sooner.
I saw a documentary on the development of the parachutes for Spirit and Opportunity which experienced similar failures during development. Getting delicate parachutes to reliably open at supersonic velocities is a very tricky business. Particularly as the mass of the payload increases. In some ways, it seems harder than rocket science. :-)
Seems like a relatively poor engineering choice to demand supersonic deployment and decel out of the parachutes.
I’m sure the smart engineers at JPL / Hughes have looked at the trade of weight of fuel for propulsive decel vs. parachute weight.
Even if propellent weight is a bit more, it could easily end up being much, much less expensive, and much, much less risky to use propulsive decel.
I recall hearing several JPL employee declare that it was “impossible” to use propulsive decel in the atmosphere during entry. This has now been proven incorrect by the F9R.
Couldn’t they just throw their junk at <ars at a slower speed and wait a little longer?
Then the entry speed might just be a little slower.
There is a minimum entry speed determined by the speed of an object that falls from infinity. My quick calculation shows that at Mars it would be somewhere around 750 meters per second, which is still pretty fast for a parachute. So even if the approach to Mars were very slow, the reentry speed would still be fast.
That is why Fred K suggested using rockets to slow the craft before reentry or before parachute deployment.
Now that you mention it, I noticed that JPL stopped using Hohmann Transfer Orbits to get to Mars (minimum energy required to reach the second orbit). This transfer orbit would reach Mars orbit, but the spacecraft would be travelling much slower than Mars, making for a large relative velocity. Does anyone know whether JPL’s modern, faster transfer orbit results in a lower relative velocity between the spacecraft and Mars?
I also think that Fred may be in error about Falcon 9 showing that rockets can be used during reentry, because Falcon 9 didn’t exactly reenter from orbit but from a suborbital trajectory. It didn’t go through a dramatic, ionizing, heat-shield-requiring, hard-to-fire-your-retrograde-rockets reentry.
Falcon ( is suborbital.
Its their second stage that they are thinking of recovering from an orbital speed. But I don’t think they have finalized any plans or designs on it yet.
And for NASA’s new parachute system to work it has to get the chute out of the unstable wake of the in falling craft.
Which should just mean a linger tether.
But since the basic idea of an inflatable braking system does tend to work what if they reshapped it to form a lifting body and gave the craft a little control for the possibility to stay up in the atmosphere for a longer period. Thus shedding more speed before the chute deploys for landing.