NASA is presently designing a flying saucer for manned mission of Mars. The new spacecraft is a part of NASA’s Low-Density Supersonic Decelerator (LDSD) project. It is nearly 7000 pounds heavy and 15-foot wide.
In June 2014, NASA performed the first test flight of LSDS mission. The government space agency tested Supersonic Inflatable Aerodynamic Decelerator (SIAD) and a supersonic Disksail Parachute together in the mission. Sadly, the parachute failed to deploy appropriately during the test.
As per the recent blog post of NASA, the LSDS project will allow researchers to test two new technologies on Mars surface the technologies will permit spacecraft to land safely on higher-altitude. It will also enable scientists to send heavy payloads on the surface of red planet.
The chief objective of the mission is to explore difficult regions of Mars. Generally, the dense atmosphere of the red planet makes exploration a complex task for scientist.
On Tuesday, NASA performed a trial to check the capabilities of the spacecraft. The US space agency tested the spacecraft in thin atmosphere of Earth the test was broadcasted live from NASA’s Jet propulsion laboratory
Recently, NASA announced that it has planned to lift off a saucer shaped rocket in June. The spacecraft will take off from NASA’s Navy’s Pacific Missile Range Facility on Kauai.
