Strap In! NASA Aeroshell Material Takes Extended Space Trip

The components of NASA technology which could one day help the crew and freight enter into hard planetary environments, like that of Mars, make an extended journey to the space graceful of the spatial force of the United States.

On August 21, several pieces of strap, known under the name of Zylon, which include the straps of the Hiad (inflatable hypersonic Aedynamic Decelerator) developed by the Langley Research Center of NASA in Hampton, in Virginia, launched on the low-soil orbit with other experiments on board X-37B Spatial. This trip will help researchers characterize how the zylon strap reacts to long -term exposure to the severe vacuum cleaner.

The material of the strap on the Aeroshell hiad is used for two purposes – the lengths of the short strap keep together the inflatable hiad rings and the longer parts help distribute the load more uniformly through the cone -shaped structure. The technology of Hiad Aeroshell could allow more spaceships to descend safely in the atmospheres of celestial bodies like Mars, Venus and even the moon of Saturn, Titan.

“We are looking for how Hiad technology could help bring humans to Mars. We want to examine the effects of long -term exposure to space – as if the zylon material was going for a potential mission to nine months to March, “Robert Mosher, Hiad Materials and Main Trapaction told NASA Langley. “We want to make sure that we know how to protect these long -term structural materials.”

Zylon’s equipment flying aboard the X-37B mission of Space Force will help NASA researchers to understand what type of aging could occur on the strap on a long space trip before living the extreme environments of atmospheric entrance, during which it must keep force at high temperatures.

Several samples are in small cans on the X-37B. Mosher used two different techniques to put the material of the strap in the cartridges. Some were closely rolled up, others in which he stuffed.

“As a rule, we are packing a little Hiad Aeroshell as you pack a parachute, so they are compressed,” he said. “We wanted to see if there was a difference between a tight material and a material full of things as you would normally see on a hiad.”

Some of the cartridges also include tiny temperature and humidity sensors placed to collect readings at regular intervals. When the spatial force returns the samples of flight X-37B, Mosher will compare them to a set of samples that have remained in cartridges here on earth to search for signs of degradation.

“Obtaining this chance to expose the zylon material to space for a long period of time will start to give us some data on the long -term packaging of a hiad,” said Mosher.

Non -inflamed hiad aeroshels can be wrapped in small spaces in a spacecraft. The result is a decelerator which can be much greater than the diameter of his launch vehicle and can therefore land much heavier loads and deliver them to higher altitudes on a planet or another celestial body.

Rigid aeroshels, whose sizes are dictated by the diameters of their launch vehicles, generally 4.5 to 5 meters, are able to land well -equipped car rovers on Mars. On the other hand, an inflatable hiad, with a diameter of 18 to 20 m, could win the equivalent of a small ranch house fully furnished with a car in the garage on Mars.

The developments of Hiad Aeroshell of NASA are based on the success of the Loftid mission in Loftid (Orbith Orbith of the agency of an inflatable decelerator mission) which was launched on November 10, 2022, resulting in valuable information on the way in which this technology takes place under the stress of the reintegration of the atmosphere of the earth after having been exposed to a court period.

Find out more: https://www.nasa.gov/space-technology-mission-Directorate/tdm/