To get the machine to Mars, NASA has deployed various landing methods over the years. Airbagparachute, jetpack.
that’s right, Spectacular high-definition video Taken last year.
Currently, the Mars team at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Southern California is testing a fourth method of attaching devices to the surface of Mars using intentional crash landings.
In a video released this week (below), the JPL team tests a simplified high impact energy landing gear (SHIELD) landing gear concept. This could offer future mission planners a low-cost way to reach Mars.
As you can see in the footage, SHIELD uses a collapsible accordion-like base to absorb the energy of hard landings.
In the test, SHIELD sprinted to the ground from the top of a tower about 90 feet (27 meters) high. To fully test the design’s integrity, SHIELD landed on an iron plate to ensure that the impact was even stronger than experienced on Mars.
Its accordion-like base takes a decidedly hard hit, hitting the plate at 110 mph (177 km/h) and crumpling. However, to the team’s delight, the components within his SHIELD, including the smartphone, remained intact.
SHIELD may not be ideal for carrying something as large and delicate as a car-sized rover to the surface of Mars, but this method could be used to bring smaller, more robust scientific instruments farther afield. can be transported to any planet.
JPL continues to test and improve SHIELD, so hopefully it won’t be long before we hear about a Mars mission that plans to actually deploy the device.
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