ExploreSpaceReality

We’re testing a new way of landing on Mars… by crashing into its surface. The Simplified High Impact Energy Landing Device (SHIELD) is a lander concept being tested at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). It could one day provide a new way for low-cost missions to land on Mars. Rather than rely on parachutes or retrorockets, SHIELD would include a collapsible, accordion-like base to absorb the energy of a landing. A full-size prototype of the base was tested on Aug. 12, 2022. The prototype was hurled at the ground from the top of a nearly 90-foot-tall (27-meter-tall) drop tower at JPL. A steel plate ensured the impact was even harder than what would be experienced on Mars. The design worked: After crushing against the steel plate at 110 mph (177 kph), several electronic components inside the SHIELD prototype, including a smartphone, survived the impact. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/California Academy of Sciences

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There may not be any humans aboard NASA's #Artemis I flight test, but there will be a special canine: Snoopy! Learn why Astronaut Snoopy is flying to space when Artemis launches on its historic mission around the Moon and back. Artemis I is the first integrated flight test of the Space Launch System rocket that will send the un-crewed Orion spacecraft around the Moon and back to Earth. The mission will check out all spacecraft systems for the first time before crew fly aboard Artemis II. It's one more step toward taking the next giant leap: sending the first astronauts to Mars.