Guardian: As NASA prepares to one day land heavy equipment and possibly humans on Mars, it has been working to upgrade the parachute technology it has been using since the Viking program in the 1970s. On Saturday the agency completed its first test of its rocket-powered, saucer-shaped landing vehicle. NASA launched the Mars landing saucer via balloon from the Pacific Missile Range Facility on Kauai. Once launched, its rocket motor ignited and carried the vehicle to an altitude of 55 km, where Earth’s atmosphere is as thin as that of Mars. As the lander was allowed to fall back to Earth, it deployed an inflatable decelerator—a large, balloon-like pressure vessel that surrounds the entry vehicle and creates atmospheric drag to slow it down—and then a parachute to further slow it down. More tests will be run before the technology is put to use in a Mars mission.
