NASA Preps for Important Test of LDSD Spacecraft in Hawaii

NASA's Low-Density Supersonic Decelerator (LDSD) is a rocket-powered, saucer-shaped test vehicle that was designed to safely land people and cargo on Mars. It completed a crucial test on Friday in Kauai, Hawaii, and will undergo more.

The space agency has been testing out the LDSD spacecraft to determine and investigate its capabilities for deep-space missions, specifically the upcoming missions to Mars. The concept of the spacecraft is to safely land astronauts and cargo on Mars because of its ability to decelerate from the high speed of atmospheric entry.

NASA's development of the LDSD spacecraft is expected to safely land vehicle, crew, and cargo with much larger drag devices that can control such heavy loads. The balloon-like decelerator on the LDSD attaches to the outer rim of the entry vehicle, inflates to add air resistance and decelerate, and then deploys a parachute to complete the landing.

Another experimental flight test will occur in June, when a balloon will carry the LDSD vehicle from the Kauai Navy Facility to an altitude of about 120,000 feet and then released into the air. The LDSD's booster rocket is expected to then carry it to 180,000 feet and then it will test two of its potential breakthrough technologies. Most importantly, the spacecraft will travel into the upper layers of the Earth's stratosphere, which are most similar to the thin atmosphere of Mars, to determine if the LDSD is capable of completing such future missions.

"We are pushing the envelope on what we know," said Ian Clark, the LDSD principal investigator from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in this NASA news release. "We are accepting higher risk with these test flights than we would with a space mission, such as the Mars Science Laboratory. We will learn a great deal even if these tests, conducted here in Earth's atmosphere at relatively low cost, fail to meet some of the mission objectives."

Researchers and scientists at NASA believe that the Low-Density Supersonic Decelerator possesses the technology to land safely on Mars' surface, but the next experimental flight test in June will reveal a lot of information regarding the spacecraft's capabilities.

When NASA determines the exact date of the test in June, you can watch it live via NASA Television.