The NASA Low Density Supersonic Decelerator (LDSD) project is important to the agency’s future missions: it’s all about mass, speed and safety. NASA is planning ambitious robotic and human missions to Mars, which will require the advancement of technology that can decelerate large payloads traveling at supersonic speeds in thin atmospheres.
LDSD, led by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, and sponsored by NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate, is conducting the next full-scale flight test of two breakthrough technologies in early June: a supersonic inflatable aerodynamic decelerator, or SIAD, and an innovative new parachute. Learn more at www.nasa.gov/ldsd and follow along to the latest launch updates and test results here, https://blogs.nasa.gov/ldsd/.