NASA ready for next test of ‘flying saucer’

NASA’s road to Mars goes through Hawaii, and if the weather there finally cooperates, you can watch as engineers from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory test their “flying saucer” in the thin air high above the Pacific Ocean.

The flying saucer isn’t designed to carry humans to Mars or ferry them around the Red Planet once they arrive. But if all goes according to plan, it will play an instrumental role in getting them – and all of their gear – safely to the Martian surface.

All of the rovers and landers NASA has sent to Mars since the first Viking probe touched down in 1976 have used parachutes to slow their descent. But if the space agency ever sends anything heavier than Curiosity – including human explorers – parachutes alone won’t cut it. Something else must help these larger payloads slow down as they hurtle through the Martian atmosphere.

That is why engineers have built the flying saucer. Officially called the Low-Density Supersonic Decelerator, or LDSD, it is 15 feet wide and has a vague resemblance to a giant pie. When it is falling toward Mars at Mach 3, it will expand its diameter to 20 feet by inflating a ring around its circumference. Not only will this enhance the flying saucer look, the added surface area will create drag to help the LDSD slow down.

Only after the ring is inflated and the saucer slows to about Mach 2.4 will the LDSD deploy its huge supersonic parachute, which measures more than 100 feet across.

This huge contraption is far too big to fit in any wind tunnel. So the JPL team is testing the flying saucer in a virtual wind tunnel about 22 miles over the Hawaiian islands.

NASA’s saucer-shaped experimental flight vehicle is prepared for a Range Compatibility Test at the U.S. Navy’s Pacific Missile Range Facility in Kaua’i, Hawaii, in April 2014.