NASA has an ambitious plan to bring back a piece of Mars on Earth for studies. The Mars sample is called the Return Mission, the idea is to send a robot team that includes a lander, rover, and a climbing vehicle to the red planet, which is being collected by the firmness Rover being collected by the samples collected in the tubes. These samples will then be launched in the martian surface and orbit, where they will be collected and brought back to Earth.
If it seems complex, it is. NASA is working on some hardware required for this ambitious long -term mission, and recently the agency tested a new design for the Earth Entry System Vehicle that will take the sample to our planet's atmosphere and surface. And its testing was a dramatic – dropping a model of the vehicle by 1,200 feet and to see if it survived.
The test was focused on the Asoshell of the vehicle, a potential design for the shell was tested, in which the heat has to be passed through the Earth's atmosphere and protect delicate electronics and samples from the forces. To do this, the test was conducted in the Utah Test and Training Range, where a helicopter climbed with a model of the vehicle and aerochelle, called the manufacturing demonostration unit (MDU), which was covered in the sensor and measured at a distance of 1.25 meters. MDU was then dropped by helicopter and its lineage was recorded. Coming from a height of 1,200 feet, the MDU reached the speed that engineers feel that a sample is equal to the landing mission.
The Chief Engineer of the Mars sample returns entry system said, “MDU was very stable during the dynasty – it did not do much, and it successfully landed, in the sense that there was no structural damage and it survived the impact.” statement,
Another positive discovery of the test was that the aerochel landed into the correct orientation, with the MDU landing on its nose as the engineers hoped it would be. Now, the team may continue to work on plans for the Earth Entry System with further tests coming later this year.
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