NASA successfully tests Mars landing technology

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory announced on Wednesday that it had successfully tested to perfect Mars Landing Technology - the same technology used in the Mars spacecraft that have already landed successfully.

Engineers working in Pasadena, California, are streamlining processes to allow a spacecraft to land on the Red Planet more accurately, thereby increasing the safety of future missions.

This accuracy problem is still so significant that Curiosity, which arrived on Mars in August 2012, for example, had an estimated landing area of ​​20x7 kilometers, which could have a very dangerous result.

Accuracy up to 100 m

The miniature rocket that served as the guinea pig to test the new vertical landing algorithms is called Autonomous Descent and Ascent Powered-flight Testbed (ADAPT). The system not only allows a reusable rocket to take off vertically, but also to land safely within a pre-selected 100-meter radius.

This is not the first time that ADAPT has successfully flown. In fact, the technology had already been tested correctly in December last year. According to NASA, the improvement of algorithms and devices will be a big step towards increasing the safety of space exploration and enabling safer landings on Mars and other planets.

Via TecMundo