LDSD Team Stands Down – For Now
NASA Low-Density Supersonic Decelerator Update 12 June 2014
“NASA did not conduct the flight test of the agency’s Low-Density Supersonic Decelerator (LDSD) from the U.S. Navy’s Pacific Missile Range in Kauai, Hawaii, during its designated launch period. The project’s reserved time at the range will expire Saturday, June 14, with NASA unable to fly the test because of continuing unfavorable weather conditions.”
The picture shows the workers in clean room clothes??? Why would they need that for a test article that’s just going up in a balloon??
probably because they don’t want to foul the systems on the test article.
Having worked the program, the reason is because of the classification of the high bay that was used, nothing with the vehicle itself.
How does this thing work? Is the white part a solid rigged shield or is it flexible?? Does the vehicle sit inside it behind the yellow walls or just on top of it? Does it fall more or less straight down or can it fly horizontally?? I have heard talk of flying horizontally in the Mars atmosphere since mars atmosphere is so thin. Does this test address that issue at all or is this just a way to increase surface area to distribute heat on a falling object.
To use Mars atmosphere to do lots of breaking, don’t we need some kind of inflatable lifting body that looks more like a plane.
the white part is a solid heat shield. the yellow walls are the inflatable part.
http://www.extremetech.com/…
it will fly more or less horizontally – but not because it would do so on Mars, but to remain in the part of Earth’s atmosphere that is most Mars-like.
http://www.govsupport.us/na…
Seems like using this high bay would be expensive??