MEGAPIXEL

Anyone seen my grasshopper?

Temperatures might exceed 3,000 ° C, when space probes enter a planet’s atmosphere. So far, the probes have been protected by plastic shields, which take up a lot of space, but NASA scientists have now made a carbon fibre heat shield, which is unfolded just like an umbrella. The compact shield has been tested during a launch to an altitude of 100 km. According to plan, the technology will allow us to send large space probes to Venus, Mars, and more, using smaller rockets.