With an idea to land humans on Mars, NASA has developed a heat shield that is like an umbrella. This invention has opened avenues to the idea of landing humans on Mars. The technology is known as Adaptable Deployable Entry Placement Technology (ADEPT) and is compact it nature because it is foldable and can be stored inside smaller size rockets as well. As per NASA’s principal investigator, this shield can open up in space in order to protect payloads that are larger while entering the planet’s atmosphere. This newly designed heat shield allows to protect more areas than current heat shields.
America had already had goals of sending humans to Mars officially recognised by the Obama government in the year 2010 and further reaffirmed the Trump government with plans to be realised by 2033. Before that NASA has already planned to send a robotic lander to the red planet. The Mars rover has been assigned the task of searching signs of previous life on Mars and helping out around technology that can help in the survival of astronauts out there.
But, before landing humans, NASA does need to send a lot of cargo there in order to support human habitat. Here is when this newly designed heat shield could help. It could also be used with crew capsules to shield the astronauts.
Usually heat shields are structures that are rigid in nature but this one has the capability to be deployed in space actually. This shield apparently eliminates the constraints of a typical launch vehicle with long and slender design.
The ADEPT of the heat shield is created by the UP Aerospace has already been tested at the Southern New Mexico spaceport. It landed at the White Sands Missile Range but before opening it did deploy in between 100 and 120 km before it opened. Once the shield is recovered the data gathered from the test will be made available.
Well, this shield has paved the way to allow NASA to execute more complex missions to other plants once it is brought into use.
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*Sourced from the Internet