the times | Thursday November 26 2020 1GM 27
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sule is protected by a 3.8m diameter
heat shield that creates drag during the
plunge through the atmosphere. This
slows it to Mach 2 — about 1,500km/h
— at which point the 15m-wide para-
chute is deployed. This stabilises the
capsule and brings the speed down fur-
ther.
This is then detached and a small
parachute pulls out the much bigger
35m parachute. That decelerates to 40
metres per second at 2km above the
ground. Then retro rockets that act as
braking engines, and a radar system,
will guide the rover to a soft landing.Nasa on target
for healthy
living in space
Rhys Blakely Science CorrespondentLeonard “Bones” McCoy, the Star Trek
doctor, said that space was “disease and
danger, wrapped in darkness and
silence”. He had diagnosed a real prob-
lem — and Nasa now believes that it
has identified the root cause of damage
to human health for anyone living
beyond the confines of the Earth.
Microgravity and radiation take their
toll and some astronauts show signs of
immune system, heart and liver prob-
lems, as well as the loss of bone and
muscle mass. A study by Nasa research-
ers suggests that many of these can be
traced to malfunctions in mitochon-
dria, the microscopic “power plants” in
cells that supply a body with energy.
The next steps could include trials in
space of drugs that are already used to
treat mitochondrial diseases.
The researchers used data from mice
sent into space, the Nasa twins study in
which Scott and Mark Kelly were mon-
itored, one on the International Space
Station and the other on Earth, and
samples from 59 other astronauts.
Afshin Beheshti, principal investiga-
tor at Nasa’s Ames Research Center in
California and a lead author of a study
published in Cell, was surprised that
mitochondria were so important. “They
weren’t on our radar,” he said. “There
are already many approved drugs for
various mitochondrial disorders. The
low-hanging fruit now would be to test
some of these drugs... in space.”In the Madras desert of Oregon, a team
of British scientists waited as an object
weighing as much as a small car was
dropped from a balloon 18 miles up in
the stratosphere, and then watched as it
hurtled to Earth.
The plan was to see if they could pre-
vent the 800kg hunk of metal from
leaving a crater in the landscape.
After 23 seconds of free fall, the first
parachute deployed. Then, less than 30
seconds later, came a second parachute
— this one 35m wide and made from
nylon thinner than paper— that en-
sured that the hulking test vehicle
would survive its fall from the sky.
Within a minute the trial
was over and it was con-
firmed that the two para-
chutes designed by a British
company can be safely used to
deliver the first European-
manufactured rover to Mars.
The tests, conducted this
month, form the
next step in send-
ing the Rosalind Franklin
rover to Mars, where
it will dig two metres
below the sur-
face to deter-
mine if life ever
existed on the
planet.
Although the deployment
atmosphere on June 10, 2023, having
taken off on September 21, 2022. It will
weigh 2,000kg and be travelling at a
speed of 21,000 km/h, meaning its heat
shield, two parachutes, radar system
and Russian-designed “retro-rockets”
will all need to work successfully in less
than six minutes to avoid disaster.
“We can’t do anything at that point,”
Sue Horne, head of space exploration at
the UK Space Agency, said. “It takes
about 20 minutes for a signal to get back
to Earth, so there is no way you can con-
trol it.”
Initially the rover in its special cap-Mars scientists take
the (18-mile) plunge
of the rover is a joint European and
Russian mission, the vehicle itself has
been designed by Airbus in Stevenage,
and its parachute system is being de-
signed and tested by Vorticity, based in
Oxfordshire. The government’s UK
Space Agency is helping to fund the
project.
Watching the test in the desert was
John Underwood, principal engineer at
Vorticity, who had to wait two hours for
the parachutes to make it to the ground
after it drifted over 100 miles. He says
that the Oregon location was chosen
because “it’s very flat and very few
people live there, so you can drop an
800 kilo test vehicle and if it all goes
horribly wrong you would be very, very
unlucky to kill anyone”.
The tests are vital to check how para-
chutes can be deployed at very fast
speeds. In previous tests the parachute’s
canopy has been badly ripped when
ejected.
Mr Underwood said: “This is a 35m
parachute manufactured with a nylon
fabric, which is about half the weight of
the lightest nylon shirt
you can
imagine,
and we are
pulling this out of the bag
at 100 miles an hour.”
The capsule
carrying the rover
and landing
equipment will
enter the MartianTom Knowles
Technology Correspondent
ESA ATG/MEDIALAB/APThe ExoMars Orbiter mission of 2016 has paved the way for the 2022 launch of
the Rosalind Franklin rover, left, which will look for evidence of life on Marsit was con-
e two para-
d by a British
be safely used to
first European-
over to Mars.
conducted this
he
d-
d Franklin
where
etres
r-deploymentchutes can be deployedat
speeds. In previous teststhe p
canopy has been badly rip
ejected.
Mr Underwood said: “Th
parachute manufactured wi
fabric, which is about half th
the lightestni
and
pulling this ou
at 100 miles
The
carrying
and
equipm
enter the