After launching an inflatable heat shield experiment into space on Thursday, NASA has now recovered the device after it fell into the Pacific Ocean. The space agency is seeking to learn whether this type of heat shield can protect valuable payloads from the high temperatures of atmospheric reentry. 03:26 Part of the space shuttle Challenger has been found at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean Today at 13:50 NASA’s Low Earth Orbit Flight Test of an Inflatable Decelerator (LOFTID) lifted off on an Atlas 5 rocket at 4:49 a.m. ET on Thursday from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. The flying saucer might not look like much, but this $93 million device could play a key role in sending future missions to Mars, Venus and Titan. LOFTID separated from the rocket about 75 minutes after liftoff. The rocket’s upper stage performed two burns to place the heat shield into reentry orbit, and LOFTID inflated as it began its journey back to Earth. The fully inflated device was about 78 miles (125 kilometers) above the surface when it began re-entering Earth’s atmosphere, NASA said in blog updates today. LOFTID was fully inflated as it began to re-enter. Image: NASA LOFTID is made of ceramic fiber that is woven together to create a fabric. This fabric is designed to withstand temperatures close to 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit as it plummets through the atmosphere at 18,000 miles per hour. The heat shield is intended to slow heavier payloads as they descend to Earth or the surfaces of other planets such as Mars and Venus, and land them safely with the aid of a parachute. G/O Media may receive a commission lightsaber hum SabersPro For the Star Wars fan with everything. These lightsabers are powered by Neopixels, LED strips running inside the shape of the blade that allow for adjustable colors, interactive sounds, and changing motion effects while dueling. The heat shield parachute deployed about two hours after liftoff and the LOFTID crashed into the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Hawaii, where a recovery vessel was dispatched to retrieve it. The Kahana-II crew fished the LOFTID out of the ocean and placed it on the deck, according to NASA. LOFTID provided limited data during the demonstration, so it was vital to recover the shield so NASA engineers could take a look at the data collected during its descent. The results of the demonstration will be available within a few days, NASA says. It is not yet clear whether LOFTID performed as expected upon its re-entry. The heat shield launched into the ocean “a few minutes later than originally believed based on the expected mission schedule,” NASA wrote in a brief. LOFTID should have slowed from a maximum speed of Mach 29 to Mach 0.7 on reentry, but onboard data has yet to confirm its speed. If the experiment is successful, it could one day help manned missions to Mars, as well as heavier payload missions to Venus or Saturn’s moon Titan. “The LOFTID test represents an important step toward the flight readiness of large-area heat shields,” said Sadaf Sobhani, assistant professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at Cornell University, in an emailed statement. “This is important because future exploration missions, such as landing humans on Mars, will require heat shields much larger than what can fit in a rocket payload, so developing technologies will enable such otherwise unfeasible missions.” More: NASA revives Psyche asteroid mission after missing launch
