Nasa launches ‘flying saucer’ to test new technology for landing on Mars
Possible future Mars lander lifted nearly into space by balloon and its own rocket engine
A saucer-shaped Nasa vehicle testing new technology for Mars landings has made a successful rocket ride over the Pacific, but its massive descent parachute only partially unfurled.
The Low Density Supersonic Decelerator was lifted by balloon 36,575 metres into the air from the Hawaiian island of Kauai. The vehicle then rocketed even higher before deploying a novel inflatable braking system.
But cheers rapidly died as a gigantic chute designed to slow its fall to splashdown in the ocean emerged tangled.
Still, officials at the US space agency said it was a pretty good test of technology that might one day be used to deliver heavy spacecraft - and eventually astronauts - to Mars.
Since the twin Viking spacecraft landed on the "Red Planet" in 1976, Nasa has relied on the same parachute design to slow landers and rovers after piercing the thin Martian atmosphere.
The US$150 million experimental flight tested a novel vehicle and a giant parachute designed to deliver heavier spacecraft and eventually astronauts.
