Mars 'Flying Saucer' Successfully Flies and Then Splashes Down Near Hawaii

Flying saucers aren't just for movies about aliens. NASA recently successfully tested its Low-Density Supersonic Decelerator (LDSD), a test vehicle meant to evaluate new landing technologies for future Mars missions in the shape of a saucer.

The flight is just the first of three planned for the LDSD project. The project itself was developed in order to evaluate new landing technologies, and this initial test was developed in order to assess the flying ability of the vehicle. In addition to determining its flying ability, though, the test also examined two new landing technologies as a type of bonus.

A high-altitude balloon launch occurred on June 28 from the Hawaiian island facility. Then, the LDSD test vehicle dropped away from the balloon and began its powered flight about 120,000 feet over the Pacific Ocean. The vehicle eventually splashed down in the ocean after the test flight.

"We are thrilled about yesterday's test," said Mark Adler, project manager for LDSD at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in a news release. "The test vehicle worked beautifully, and we met all of our flight objectives. We have recovered all the vehicle hardware and data recorders and will be able to apply all of the lessons learned from this information to our future flights."

So why test new landings and types of flight in the first place? This type of technology will be crucial when it comes to delivering larger payloads to Mars. This, in turn, will help deliver supplies to the Red Planet which will help pave the way for future human explorers.

"This entire effort was just fantastic work by the whole team and is a proud moment for NASA's Space Technology Mission Directorate," said Dorothy Rasco, deputy associate administrator for the Space Technology Mission Directorate. "This flight reminds us why NASA takes on hard technical problems, and why we test-to learn and build the tools we will need for the future of space exploration. Technology drives exploration, and yesterday's flight is a perfect example of the type of technologies we are developing to explore our solar system."