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Looking ahead to missions to Mars with Nasa’s large inflatable aeroshell.
Nasa has revealed an ‘inflatable heat shield’ that may change future space missions. ‘LOFTID’ (Low-Earth Orbit Flight Test of an Inflatable Decelerator) is set to be launched in November. Once in orbit, it will inflate, before descending back to Earth.
Nasa hopes that a large inflatable aeroshell protected by a heat shield could slow down a spacecraft enough to survive atmospheric entry. If successful, the technology could eventually allow humans to land on Mars.
Image credit: Nasa/Cover Images
One challenge Nasa faces is delivering heavy payloads safely to destinations with an atmosphere, stating “current rigid aeroshells are constrained by a rocket’s shroud size. One answer is an inflatable aeroshell that can be deployed to a scale much larger than the shroud.” LOFTID’s aeroshell will measure six metres in diameter.
The agency will launch the structure aboard an Atlas V rocket as a secondary payload with the Joint Polar Surveyor System-2 (JPSS-2). After JPSS-2 reaches orbit, the LOFTID re-entry vehicle will be put on a trajectory from low-Earth orbit to demonstrate its ability to decelerate and re-enter Earth’s atmosphere.
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