As the world’s car manufacturers
continue to deal with airbag recalls,
other airbag developers have the luxury
of not needing to protect human lives.
All they need to protect is a massive
investment in time and money on the
part of NASA.
The Low-Density Supersonic
Decelerator is a concept re-entry vehicle
designed to help probes and rovers
survive the punishing process of setting
down on Mars. The disc-shaped vehicle
deploys an airbag to create atmospheric
drag (even in Mars’ extremely wispy
excuse for an atmosphere), and to induce
a stabilising spin. This test vehicle, sitting
on a recovery barge in the Pacific in 2014,
worked perfectly - at least in terms
of the airbag. Ironically, its old-school
parachute, which only opened at the last
minute, was torn apart and the LDSD
“touched down” at about 40 km/h.
Still, all instruments were recovered,
and a 40 km/h impact is a lot better
than its initial speed at re-entry: about
Mach 4.32 (5334 km/h)!FASTEST AIRBAG EVER
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