We brake together with NASA JPL

A useful thing after all, this parachute! And the pilot can save life, and deliver humanitarian aid to the right place. And especially curious - even to land on the next planet. Parachutes in astronautics - a separate, noteworthy topic.

Under the cut, I will tell, but rather I will show the latest achievements of NASA in testing new “brake” models.







First, a little history of parachutism.

Parachutes were invented a long time ago - even Leonardo da Vinci was able to calculate the approximate area and shape necessary for the safe descent of a person through the air. However, as long as there was no need, there was not even any kind of production. Parachutes entered our lives in the XVIII century - as a security measure when flying in a balloon, and finally strengthened with the development of aviation. Today it is difficult to find a person, even if secretly not dreaming of an amateur jump from a height.



But resourceful humanity has found another useful application of this simple invention. From the beginning of space exploration, we began to use parachutes not only for landing, but also for receiving the planetname - the main thing is that the atmosphere of the object allows. It was not too thin so that you could use resistance. Well, too dense it is not necessary that the spacecraft does not crash on the firmament , although in fact in terms of landing just such a property would be useful.

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The lander enters the middle atmosphere of Titan.



It was the parachute canopy (which had lain on the surface of a neighboring planet for more than 40 years) that became one of the clues, thanks to which the Soviet spacecraft Mars-3 was found not so long ago. Yes, yes, in 1971 a complex landing system was used - precisely because of the peculiarities of the atmosphere of Mars. First, the exhaust parachute was released, which freed the main compartment (simply by tearing off the cover). When the fall rate dropped to a transonic one, the main parachute fully opened, and at a height of about 20 meters, like its exhaust brother, it disconnected from the device, giving jet engines the right to “brake”. As you can see, an apple fell far from an apple tree, in the literal sense - the dome indicated where to look.



An even more interesting story of landing at Curiosity. Among other features and innovations , hiding safely in a capsule, "Curious" released his parachute at double the speed of sound. At such tremendous speeds, special parachutes are used. They are called “supersonic”. Heavy-duty, ultra-reliable - a real genius of engineering! Their main drawback is in size: after all, the heavier the device we want to safely land, the greater must be the area of ​​the parachute. For the time being, it was necessary to put up with such dimensions, but the question arose sideways during the testing of the latest models of the LDSD system (Low-Density Supersonic Decelerator - Low-Density Supersonic Decelerator). The huge dome simply did not want to fit in the wind tunnel! How did NASA decide to handle this? Let's listen to them:







PS I translated and voiced the video for the Russian-speaking segment, but if someone is looking for the original - here it is . By the way, the whole NASA JPL channel there is very well and accessible to you about missions and plans. I advise.