LOFTID Mission

Why in news?

• NASA has completed the technology demonstration of its Low-Earth Orbit Flight Test of an Inflatable Decelerator (LOFTID) mission.

About LOFTID Mission:

• LOFTID is a partnership between NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate and United Launch Alliance (ULA).
• It aims to demonstrate a Hypersonic Inflatable Aerodynamic Decelerator (HIAD) or aeroshell technology that could one day help land humans on Mars.
• A HIAD device will have an inflatable structure that is capable of holding its shape against drag forces. It will also have a protective flexible thermal protection system that will protect it from the heat generated during re-entry.

Significance of HIAD technology:

• For destinations with an atmosphere, one of the challenges NASA faces is how to deliver heavy payloads (experiments, equipment, and people) because current rigid aeroshells are constrained by a rocket’s shroud size.
  • One answer to this is HIAD technology that can be deployed to a scale much larger than the shroud.
• It could potentially be used for bringing back rocket assets after they are launched.
• When a spacecraft or anything else enters a planet’s atmosphere, drag acts upon the body and slows it down-converting kinetic energy into heat. The large size of the HIAD device means that it creates more drag and starts the deceleration process higher in the atmosphere than traditional aeroshells.
• It could be used to bring back massive objects back from Earth’s orbit, like items from the International Space Station.

PRACTICE QUESTION

Low-Earth Orbit Flight Test of an Inflatable Decelerator (LOFTID) mission, recently seen in news, is associated with:

(a) NASA

(b) ISRO

(c) European Space Agency

(d) Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)

Answer