Mark Adler, who happens to be with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab, shared, “So, if we want to put bigger things on Mars. We want to extend our reach, not with just robots, but also with people and more into the Solar system, to go to Mars, this is one of the key, critical technologies that we are going to need to be able to do that.”
Known as the Low Density Supersonic Decelerator or LDSD, this unique spacecraft happens to be part of a project that intends to simulate the flight of spacecraft that can reach an altitude and speed which will be similar to the environment that space vehicles encounter should it eventually end up in the Martian atmosphere one of these days. NASA engineers will control the so-called UFOs at mission control headquarters, where it will be carried to the stratosphere by a hot air balloon before being dropped from a height of 120,000 feet. In order to achieve its signature spin, a quartet of tiny rocket motors will come to life.