To get machines onto Mars, NASA has been deploying varied touchdown strategies that over time have included air baggage, parachutes, and jetpacks.

Indeed, spectacular high-definition footage captured final yr confirmed how the house company deployed parachutes and jetpacks to get its Perseverance rover safely onto the floor of the pink planet.

Now, the Mars crew at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Southern California is testing a fourth methodology of getting equipment onto the martian floor — utilizing a deliberate crash touchdown.

A video (under) launched this week reveals the JPL crew testing its Simplified High Impact Energy Landing Device (SHIELD) lander idea, which might provide future mission planners a low-cost manner of reaching Mars.

As you may see within the footage, SHIELD makes use of a collapsible, accordion-like base to soak up the power of a tough touchdown.

In the take a look at, SHIELD was despatched hurtling towards the bottom from the highest of a virtually 90-foot-tall (27-meter-tall) tower. To absolutely take a look at the integrity of the design, SHIELD landed on a metal plate to make sure the impression was even tougher than what it could expertise on Mars.

That accordion-like base clearly takes a heavy hit, crumpling because it smashes onto the plate at 110 mph (177 kph). But to the crew’s delight, the elements inside SHIELD, which included a smartphone, remained intact.

While SHIELD will not be superb for getting one thing as massive and delicate as a car-sized rover onto the floor of Mars, the tactic might definitely be used to get smaller and extra sturdy science equipment to the distant planet.

As JPL continues to check and refine SHIELD, hopefully it gained’t be too lengthy earlier than we hear a couple of Mars mission that plans to deploy the machine for actual.

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