WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 18th November, 2022) A new inflatable heat shield designed to bring far larger payloads than ever before from space orbit back to Earth exceeded expectations in its first flight test, NASA said.
"Does it work? (The answer is) a pretty resounding yes," NASA Director of Mission Technology Demonstrations Trudy Kortes said on Thursday.
On November 10, an Atlas rocket carried the first flight test of the new Low-Earth Orbit Flight Test of the Inflatable Decelerator (LOFTID) technology.
NASA said that the LOFTID payload successfully followed a re-entry trajectory from low-Earth orbit to demonstrate the inflatable heat shield's ability to slow down and survive re-entry.
Kortes said NASA demonstrated with Artemis its new heavy mass into space capability.
"LOFTID has demonstrated down mass capability. We now have the capability to put heavy payloads into space and bring them down. These are huge steps," Kortes added.
LOFTID successfully demonstrated how the inflatable aeroshell, or heat shield, could slow down and survive re-entry in conditions relevant to many potential applications, whether landing humans on Mars, new missions to Venus and Titan or carrying back heavier payloads from low-Earth orbit, according to NASA.
