Washington: The US space agency is seeking innovative ideas from students for generating a novel technology that can help land heavy manned spacecrafts safely and swiftly on the surface of Red Planet.
Called inflatable spacecraft heat shields or hypersonic inflatable aerodynamic decelerator (HIAD) technology, this will generate a new class of relatively lightweight deployable aeroshells that can safely deliver more than 22 tonnes to the surface of Mars.
Weighing one tonne, the Mars Curiosity rover is the heaviest payload ever landed on the Red Planet so far. “NASA is currently developing and flight testing HIADs.
A crewed spacecraft landing on Mars would weigh between 15 and 30 tonnes,” said Steve Gaddis from NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. To slow a vehicle carrying a significantly heavier payload through the thin Martian atmosphere and safely land it on the surface is a significant challenge.
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