NASA is working on their own FLYING SAUCERS! The saucer will eventually be used for landing large payloads on Mars.
Nasa had hoped to launch a test flight earlier this month, but was unable to do so because of poor weather conditions around its Kauai, Hawaii, where the trial was due to take place.
The trial will initially entail using a helium balloon to lift the saucer to about 120,000 feet, after which a rocket will be used to take it up into the stratosphere at four times the speed of sound.
Then the saucer’s decelerator and parachute will put through its paces.
The craft, or to give it its official name Low-Density Supersonic Decelerator (LDSD), looks like a cross between a flying saucer and an inflatable rubber ring.
Its task is to deliver vital equipment to missions such as that on Mars without plummeting to the surface too quickly and destroying the payload.
“Our goal is to get to an altitude and velocity which simulates the kind of environment one of our vehicles would encounter when it would fly in the Martian atmosphere,” said Ian Clark, a Nasa engineer.
Poor weather conditions in Hawaii always ruin everything, but we’re glad NASA sorted that shit out and we’ll actually get to watch flying saucers take the skies soon. I’ve got my tinfoil helmut ready and everything!
[via the telegraph]
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