Launch of JPL/NASA LDSD Mars Landing Technology Flight Test

From today about 30 minutes ago.

Low-Density Supersonic Decelerator takes to the skies over Kauai, Hawaii, in its second flight test. the rocket-propelled craft attains velocity four times the speed of sound, inflates and deploys the world's largest parachute. This technology may someday help land humans on Mars.

Here is the video of the launch



Ongoing Stream can be found here.

The Low-Density Supersonic Decelerator or LDSD is a reentry vehicle designed to create atmospheric drag in order to decelerate during entry through a planet's atmosphere. It is essentially a disc-shaped vehicle containing an inflatable, doughnut-shaped balloon around the outside. The use of this type of system may allow an increase in the payload. It is intended to be used to help a spacecraft decelerate before landing on Mars. This is done by inflating the balloon around the vehicle to increase the surface area and create atmospheric drag. After sufficient deceleration, a parachute on a long tether deploys to further slow the vehicle. The vehicle is being developed and tested by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Mark Adler is the project manager.

As I write this, it is 2:30 PM U.S. Eastern Time.

According to the commentators, the LDSD will take a while to be lifted by the balloon to the proper altitude, and may not be dropped from the balloon until 4:00 PM or so (Eastern Time).

I think going to Mars is a bad idea.

Why not correct the damage we have caused on Earth before we invade a new planet?

originally posted by: highfromphoenix
I think going to Mars is a bad idea.

Why not correct the damage we have caused on Earth before we invade a new planet?

Why not strive to do both?

At what point in the future (or in the past, for that matter) could we say "The Earth is fixed now, so it's the proper time for us to be explorers". It seems as if someone could always claim that there is a domestic problem that needs to be solved before humans can explore.

Drop time is now being listed as 21:35 UTC or 5:35 PM U.S. Eastern time. That's about 13 minutes from now, as I write this.

Things looked good, until the chute didn't fully open. I'm not sure what happens next (does it fall at tremendous speeds to crash in the ocean?)

According to Gilbert Levin, one of the people behind the Labeled Release Experiemnt which was aboard Viking 1 & 2, we already found life on Mars. If he's to be believed, there's either some kind of mass conspiracy or a sort of mass denial similar to the climate change denial. Anyway, some people say he's crazy, but when I see him talk on the videos my mind cries the man is being shut up by a subtle and sly form of bullying.

One asks how on Earth can it be possible. The truth doesn't need to be kept secret. It finds its way out. It can't be hidden. So how can Gilbert Levin be right? He has to be wrong. He's just crazy or a liar. NASA couldn't hide this. It's just more likely Gilbert is the one who's wrong.

Idk. Usually I'm confident about NASA and these organizations and have trust in them. But right now I'm not in a good place. Sorry.

What's the truth? Hell if I know. People die before they know. People fall like flies. Happens all the time. It's called life (and death).

Look, I'm usually not like this. I know there're lots of liars and cons and BSers. I'm just trying to make sense of something bigger than me.

I have ot think he's wrong. it's too insane to think anything else. Science works. We--I--have to trust it. I have deep trust issues.

Aglphsuger Consocial Disorder. I must have that. I'm sure it's in the DSM It makes me unable ot trust people who I otherwise would.

The answer to this current probelm is simple to google websites which throw dirt on Gilbert Levin. Fact is, he's old and out of his league now. He's been saying BS for a long time and not listening to the community. He's in a mental fog and will keep spouting the same wrong things until he's deceased and finally rests. Some people are THAT pigheaded.

And of course the current conditions on Mars make life surely impossible presently unless it's deep underground. Maybe we'll find life, but it won't have any ties whatsoever to the Mr Levin. so.... I'm done.

On that note, hey it's nice to see JPL/NASA working on the technology which will further enable us to explore our neighbor. I know there's good reasoning behind it and lots of science. I do respect that.

originally posted by: Soylent Green Is People
Things looked good, until the chute didn't fully open. I'm not sure what happens next (does it fall at tremendous speeds to crash in the ocean?)

Thanks for that update. I was not able to watch it till then. Too bad it failed.

originally posted by: jonnywhite
According to Gilbert Levin, one of the people behind the Labeled Release Experiemnt which was aboard Viking 1 & 2, we already found life on Mars. If he's to be believed, there's either some kind of mass conspiracy or a sort of mass denial similar to the climate change denial. Anyway, some people say he's crazy, but when I see him talk on the videos my mind cries the man is being shut up by a subtle and sly form of bullying...

The question isn't whether positive life-finding results of the Labeled Release Experiment are being suppressed through some sort of conspiracy. the question is whether or not the experimenter really did detect life. The results are not so cut-and-dry as to say positively that it did.

Right now the general consensus is that the experiment was inconclusive due to the fact that perchlorates in the soil (which were not known to be present in the soil when the experiment was performed) could have possibly destroyed the organics that Viking was looking for in the experiment that heated the soil looking for life processes. One interesting result that may point toward life is that the substances produced when the organics are being destroyed by the perchlorate upon heating were actually the substances found by Viking.

At the time, the results seemed to indicate no life, due to the researchers being unaware of the perchlorates. However, armed with the knowledge of the presences of perchlorates in the soil possibly skewing the results of the test, today's researchers are not so sure about the negative result...

...HOWEVER, that does not necessarily mean a positive result. It is still inconclusive at best.