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NASA Invests $105 Million in US Small Business Technology Development

NASA invests has a long history of supporting America’s business people as they create advances from thoughts to business status. The office’s Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program is encouraging that heritage with 140 new Phase II honors to 127 U.S. private ventures that will help them move their advancements to showcase. The honors to these private ventures, situated across 34…

Orbital ATK to develop ‘tipping point’ orbital assembly technologies

Orbital ATK’s concept of MEV on-orbit. Image Credit: Orbital ATK.

Orbital ATK is developing Commercial Infrastructure for Robotic Assembly and Services (CIRAS), a set of in-space hardware assembly technologies, under the NASA Space Technology Mission Directorate’s (STMD) “tipping point” program. This public-private partnership will focus on capabilities needed for future human and robotic…

Low Density Supersonic Decelerator prepares to fly again - what to expect from today’s flight.

NASA’s Low Density Supersonic Decelerator is gearing up for its second test flight later today, nearly a year after its inaugural mission. Seen above is the vehicle following a full dress rehearsal last week.

The LDSD is a saucer-shaped vehicle with an inflatable ballute - dubbed SIAD, for Supersonic Inflatable Aerodynamic Decelerator - that aims to slow down a spacecraft more effectively than a heat shield would in the upper atmosphere.

Coupled with the largest supersonic parachute ever flown, SIAD and the LDSD will determine if the methods are effective enough to decelerate incoming spacecraft to speeds allowing for a safe touchdown.

In order to reach the test altitude of 120,000 feet, LDSD will ‘launch’ on a helium balloon from the Navy’s Pacific Missile Range facility in Kauai. Launch is currently slated for 1:30 pm EDT, or 7:30 am HDT. The balloon will take roughly three hours to reach its float altitude, or height at which it no longer rises or sinks. There, LDSD will be released. The saucer will fly to an altitude of 180,000 feet at a top speed of Mach 4. Descending towards the Earth’s surface, the SIAD deploys at Mach 3. This will slow the vehicle down to Mach 2.4, where the Supersonic Disk Sail Parachute will be deployed.

The Supersonic Disk Sail Parachute did not properly deploy on the inaugural LDSD flight and will be tested again on this second flight. At 33.5 meters in diameter, it is twice the size of the largest supersonic parachute previously flown, which was on the Mars Science Laboratory mission in 2012.

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SIXTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF LORD OF THE FLIES SUCKS TO MY DICK UPDATE POSTED NOW