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NASA's Test Bed For Mars Chute: Kauai
An Associated Press story, as carried by the Philadelphia Inquirer, says that NASA plans to test this Tuesday on the Hawaiian island of Kauai a huge (110' diameter) parachute intended as a means to land big loads (like astronauts) on the surface of Mars.
Says the story: "The skies off the Hawaiian island of Kauai will be a stand-in for Mars as NASA prepares to launch a saucer-shaped vehicle in an experimental flight designed to land heavy loads on the red planet. For decades, robotic landers and rovers have hitched a ride to Earth's planetary neighbor using the same parachute design. But NASA needs a bigger and stronger parachute if it wants to send astronauts there. ... During the flight, a high-flying balloon will loft the disc-shaped vehicle from the U.S. Navy's Pacific Missile Range Facility in Kauai to 23 miles over the Pacific where it will be dropped. Then it will fire its rocket motor to climb to 34 miles, accelerating to Mach 4. The environment at this altitude is similar to Mars' thin atmosphere. As it descends to Earth, a tube around the vehicle should inflate, slowing it down. Then the parachute should pop out, guiding the vehicle to a gentle splashdown in the Pacific."
Scientist 1: So, we need to test this thing. I suppose we could talk to the folks at China Lake. It's nearby and cheap. We can stay at the Motel 6 in Ridgecrest.
Scientist 2: Yeah, we could do that, or have the Pacific dudes fire it over HAWAII and we get to hang out in Kawaii!!!!
Scientist 1: But that's expensive.
Scientist 2: Fuck that - it's HAWAII!!! It's in the USA! Good enough!
Scientist 1: Yeah, but...
Scientist 2: But nothin' dude - have you even been to Kawaii?
Scientist 1: No, but....
Scientist 2: but nothin' it's awesome. And it beats the living fuck out of Ridgecrest. You ever been to Ridgecrest?
Scientist 1: Yeah. It's hot. Out in the desert.
Scientist 2: Yeah, AND IT SUCKS! They have earthquakes like every other day out there. It's a miserable hell hole that's only rivaled by Barstow and Needles.
Scientist 1: Well, its not pretty, but it is nearby, and I don't think the test cares if we shoot it over Kawaii or Death Valley, really.
Scientist 2: The test won't but everyone on the team will. Kawaii is fucking AWESOME DUDE!
Scientist 1: We can meet budget.
Scientist 2: We can SURF!
Scientist 1: OK, let's ask another team mate. What do you think?
Scientist 3: What, do I look stupid? Fuck Ridgecrest - YOLO baby - let's go to Hawaii!!!
Scientist 1: Sigh....
Shoes for Industry. Shoes for the Dead.
Huh huh huh. He said 'big loads'. Huh huh huh.
Heh heh. Loads! Heh heh.
On Soviet Mars, Earthlings land on Mars in flying saucer?
The PMRF at Barking Sands in Kauai is a very well instrumented range that is set up to observe navy exercises in the waters off Kauai, things flying overhead (such as missiles launched in California), and things launched on the beach at Barking Sands (such as this test), so it is not surprising to me that this test is being run there. There is a long history of NASA - Navy collaboration there - back in the shuttle days, the GSTDN station at Kokee Park (a NASA outpost in a PMRF enclave up Waimea Canyon above the beach) would routinely track shuttles coming in for reentry in California, and there is now a Navy VLBI antenna operated by NASA contractors there.
By the way, it is called Barking Sands because pebbles on the beach make a sound something like seals barking when waves hit them.
Stay right where you are. Now, just a little further to the left . . .
I had a comment, but I can't find the login form on the Beta. What a clusterfuck!
Now Nasa wan't to bring Martian tourists into our island
My ism, it's full of beliefs.
http://www.ustream.tv/nasajpl2
" The environment at this altitude is similar to Mars' thin atmosphere"
Yes, but mars gravity is 1/3rd earths so presumably they'll be testing with only 1/3rd the weight slung under the chute?
Considering that the most problematic aspect of landing
on a planet is a surplus of (kinetic) energy, why not find
a way to take a long glide through the atmosphere while
converting some of that energy and storing it in a form
that can power a propeller, rocket engine or other device
to slow down the last phase of descent? The air friction
from this energy collecting phase would also serve to slow
down the descent, making the final phase all the easier.
As far as forms of energy which could be converted to for ...?
storage: there's the possibility of converting CO2 to carbon
carbon monoxide and oxygen; there's charging batteries to
power a helicopter propeller; and
I don't suggest that these are practical methods of storing
and using surplus energy --- they're just starting points.
I need to check if my license plate is still on the wall at Brick Oven Pizza (locals will get this).
Have gnu, will travel.
You should know that ha`ole means "without the breath of life" (eg. soulless). It arose because Hawaiians (and most Polynesians) greet each other by smelling this breath of life (you'll see us put our heads near the other person's neck and inhale). Ha`ole shake hands instead, so the natives assumed they didn't have souls. Of course, today ha`ole is used for any light-skinned individual - including those whose families have been in the Islands for generations. Eighty percent of the time I heard it, it was more charged than the "n" word in English.
Not sure I'd want to ride the parachute to a hard-surface landing. Is SpaceX planning to deploy Grasshopper-type technology to Mars landings? Send up some robots to build a landing pad first, if needed. Robots are happy to do a hard landing (or their replacements will be if that doesn't work out).
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
for the reports of UFO's! "OMG! It's about to land!"... :-)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxI4GxamTqE