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."

Comments

Sounds like a trip to Hawaii

[Ralph Spoilsport]

Rather than Ridgecrest, California. I can practically hear the discussion now...

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....

Re:Sounds like a trip to Hawaii

[mbone]

Given that they have launched Polaris missiles from PMRF Barking Sands this isolation is a feature, not a bug. You can go to the Barking Sands beach there at the state park a little North of the base.

About 25 years ago there was big dustup when the Air Force planned some missile launches from Barking Sands that would have required closing the park during launch days, and they neglected to tell the State Parks Department about it on the Environmental Impact Statement. That was a very bad move, and cost the Air Force a good deal of time and money once it hit the press.

Re:Sounds like a trip to Hawaii

[TWX]

Barking Sands itself is now closed to anyone but military personnel and to local residents that have applied for and received advance permission to use it from the base commander. Island visitors cannot go there as visitors to the base are only allowed into specific authorized areas and are escorted while there. One can still visit Polihale to the north, but the road getting there is very hard on rental cars.

Not surprising they'll use PMRF Barking Sands

[mbone]

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.

It's okay.

[mmell]

Relax. Settle down.

Stay right where you are. Now, just a little further to the left . . .

Gravity?

[Viol8]

" 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?

Re:Fucking howlies

[internerdj]

You aren't fooling us. Every one of us with kids has seen the documentary Lilo and Stitch. There are already aliens on Hawaii.

Re: howlies

[laie_techie]

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.

Re:What is SpaceX doing?

[mbone]

You basically cannot make a parachute big enough to land softly on Mars. The parachute is to slow you down (roughly) from Mach 2 or 1.5 to Mach 0.3 or so, and then you have to use rockets (or airbags, or both) to get down to the surface more or less softly. Viking, Phoenix and MSL used rockets, Mars Pathfinder and MER used rockets plus an airbag (and a willingness to tolerate 15 - 20 g impacts on the surface). In either case, the parachute is jettisoned while still a ways above the surface.

If you conclude from this that landing on Mars is tough, you are correct.