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NASA To Test Inflatable Donut For Landing On Mars

Posted by Soulskill on from the mmmmmmm-donuts dept.

An anonymous reader writes: When NASA has put rovers on the surface of Mars, they've relied heavily on parachutes to get through the atmosphere safely. Aerobraking doesn't work as well as it does on Earth because Mars's atmosphere is so thin. Parachuting runs into the same problem, but it's easier to pack a bigger chute than it is to bring along a bigger heat shield. But NASA has been working on that exact problem, and they'll soon test the Low-Density Supersonic Decelerator (LDSD), which looks an awful lot like a giant, inflatable donut. When a spacecraft is ready to enter an atmosphere, the LDSD will inflate along its outside edge, substantially increasing its surface area while not adding too much weight. Weather has postponed the test a couple times already, but NASA hopes to complete it on Monday.

38 comments

  1. Oh? by Whiteox · · Score: 3, Funny

    A lander with a sore arse?

    --
    Don't be apathetic. Procrastinate!
    1. Re:Oh? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "Why did you think a big balloon would stop them?"

      "Shut up, that's why!"

    2. Re:Oh? by dotancohen · · Score: 4, Informative

      A lander with a sore arse?

      A writer with a sore arse. Here is one choice paragraph:

      Here is the problem. The Curiosity lander had a mass of 900 kg (1 ton). What happens when you want to have a larger mass payload? Maybe you want to land humans on Mars. If you double the mass of the payload, you need to double the area of the parachute. Curiosity used a parachute 15 meters in diameter. If you doubled the mass, you would need a parachute 60 meters in diameter.

      The first four sentences are complete non-sequiturs. The next three display a profound lack of basic math skills. The rest of the article is no better. That's what passes for "science writer" at Wired, it seems.

      --
      It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong.
  2. Inflated with... by garyisabusyguy · · Score: 2

    ... delicious jelly or Boston creme?

    --
    Wherever You Go, There You Are
    1. Re:Inflated with... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Homer Simpson approves of both materials.

      Mmmm must not eat forbidden donut ..... *om nom nom om nomoaoomomomnom*

  3. Latter Day Saints Donut? by turkeydance · · Score: 3, Funny

    Mormons in Space?

    1. Re:Latter Day Saints Donut? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Red Dwarf reference: http://reddwarf.wikia.com/wiki...

    2. Re:Latter Day Saints Donut? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      The lander was was at Berkeley back in the '60s, did a little too much LDS.

  4. NASA testing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I believe NASA did all of its LSD testing back in the 60's...

    1. Re:NASA testing by Trax3001BBS · · Score: 1

      I believe NASA did all of its LSD testing back in the 60's...

      Ah yes, the days of jumping head first out of 5 story windows.

    2. Re:NASA testing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Ah yes, the days of jumping head first out of 5 story windows.

      Citation needed. Oh wait, it never happened, so you're unlikely to get a citation.

    3. Re:NASA testing by Trax3001BBS · · Score: 1

      Ah yes, the days of jumping head first out of 5 story windows.

      Citation needed. Oh wait, it never happened, so you're unlikely to get a citation.

      Well that took all of a minute http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P...

  5. Inflatable donuts? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    NASA needs to spend more time thinking about asteroids and less time worrying about hemorrhoids!

  6. NASA To Test Inflatable Doll... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Oh, right.

  7. They coulda got ... by CaptainDork · · Score: 1

    ... a free one yesterday.

    --
    It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
  8. Space Hemorrhoids by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Thank the spaghetti monster in the sky we finally have a cure for this scourge of the universe. Finally a butt doughnut to fit my galactic sized derrière!

  9. Cops? On Mars? by jennatalia · · Score: 0

    It's more likely than you think!

  10. Typical NASA by sunderland56 · · Score: 1

    A day late, a dollar short.... *yesterday* was Donut Day.

  11. Donuts and LSD by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Rocket Scientist #1: Want a donut?
    Rocket Scientist #2: Whoa, man. It's all like psychadelic like
    Rocket Scientist #1: No it's not, it's a cinnamon donut
    Rocket Scientist #2: Gravy... what's with all the like pink icing and little spheres of different colors like joseph's technicolor dreamsuit, like? like?
    Rocket Scientist #1: Stop saying like
    Rocket Scientist #2: What, man? Like chill out.
    Rocket Scientist #1: Fuck off
    Rocket Scientist #2: Whoa, man. Take one of these here chill pills, like.
    Rocket Scientist #1: Who are you anyway?
    Rocket Scientist #2: Dude, I am on the short list for the like Mars Lunar Mission
    Rocket Scientist #1: The what?
    Rocket Scientist #2: The Lunar Mars Mission, like
    Rocket Scientist #1: Seriously, this is like serious. Can you be serious, like?
    Rocket Scientist #2: Are you me?
    Rocket Scientist #1: Who?
    Rocket Scientist #2: You?
    Rocket Scientist #1: I take back the offer. No donut for you.
    Rocket Scientist #2: Who?
    Rocket Scientist #1: Fuck off
    Rocket Scientist #2: Me?
    Rocket Scientist #1: No, the fucking cleaner
    Rocket Scientist #2: Where?
    Rocket Scientist #1: Anywhere. Why are you glowing anyway?
    Rocket Scientist #2: Where?
    Rocket Scientist #1: All over. And those flashing lights under your skin... wtf are they for?
    Rocket Scientist #2: Can I have my donut?
    Rocket Scientist #1: No!!!!
    Rocket Scientist #2: Give me my chill pill back, like, now, like.
    Rocket Scientist #1: I ate it
    Rocket Scientist #2: Where's the cleaner?
    Rocket Scientist #1: Who?
    Rocket Scientist #2: You
    Rocket Scientist #1: What time is it like dude?
    Rocket Scientist #2: Where?
    Rocket Scientist #1: There
    Rocket Scientist #2: Four twenty!

  12. Donuts: Is there anything they can't do? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    --Homer

  13. I watched the first robot land in a large ball by Trax3001BBS · · Score: 1

    Broadcst from JPL, over the com system it was announced it's still rolling, still rolling (nervous laughter), still rolling, ok forgot to account for Doppler, it's stopped now.
    (Mars was receding from us).

  14. mmmm donuts by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jro7YovY9RY

  15. Uh huh, yeah, authoritarian exodus by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    A clever way to establish a voluntary Martian police state. They'll be jumping off rooftops to get there first. Way to go.

  16. Mmm ... by fahrbot-bot · · Score: 1

    Mmm ... Low-Density Supersonic Decelerator. (drool)

    --
    It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
  17. Originally it had another name by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Originally called the High Energy Mobility Re-entry Oval for Interplanetary Descent, or more colloquially HEMROID

    1. Re:Originally it had another name by dotancohen · · Score: 1

      Reactive, maybe? Research? Radial? I hate to be the pedant, but on Mars we call entering the atmosphere "entry" or EDL, but not "reentry" because the craft has never been there before.

      --
      It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong.
  18. Approved by penguinoid · · Score: 1

    This submission has been approved by Homer Simpson.

    --
    Don't waste your vote! Vote for whoever you want, unless you live in a swing state it won't matter anyways
  19. Obligatory by ssufficool · · Score: 1

    I would think this would be more useful for... Uranus.

    1. Re:Obligatory by camperdave · · Score: 1

      No. Uranus has a thick enough atmosphere that we could do aerobraking and parachutes.

      --
      When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
    2. Re:Obligatory by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No. Uranus has a thick enough atmosphere that we could do aerobraking and parachutes.

      I think you have us confused with J-LO.

    3. Re:Obligatory by camperdave · · Score: 1

      No. J-LO is the actress. JPL (Jet Propulsion Laboratory) is the space people.

      --
      When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
  20. Second test by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    This is their second test of this device.

    The first time they tested it, the parachute that was supposed to deploy shredded to pieces.

    Video of the last test here.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

  21. i love you NASA! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    i love you NASA!

  22. Bad math! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "If you double the mass of the payload, you need to double the area of the parachute. Curiosity used a parachute 15 meters in diameter. If you doubled the mass, you would need a parachute 60 meters in diameter."

    The diameter of a doubled area would be 21m. At least calculated on a circle, on a half sphere it would be even less. But I don't know if parachutes area is calculated on the surface or the cut.

    But hey, I could be totally wrong and then some other anonymous coward could correct me :-)

  23. A.K.A. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I bet they call it the Low-Density Supersonic Doughnut internally.

  24. 2010: Odyssey Two by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Looks like NASA engineers have been taking clues from Arthur C. Clarke again.

  25. The key question is: by fredrated · · Score: 1

    How does it taste?

  26. First words from mars landing by BadPirate · · Score: 1

    Ich bin ein berliner.

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    - Holy crap, I've got MOD points! Who thought that was a good idea.