NASA To Recover Lots of Data From Tiny Package During Inflatable Heat Shield Tech Demo

After a November 2022 demonstration of an inflatable heat shield, a recovery team will use GPS to look for a bright yellow capsule over a 900-mile stretch of the Pacific Ocean. The capsule, about the size and shape of a huge lemon, contains vital information.

This little data module (EDM) for NASA's Low-Earth Orbit Flight Test of an Inflatable Decelerator is contained in this little container (LOFTID). Inflatable heat shield technology that could perhaps be utilized to put people on Mars will be demonstrated by LOFTID. The LOFTID spacecraft will be launched into orbit, where it will inflate its heat shield before entering Earth's atmosphere and splashing down in the Pacific Ocean.

The EDM, which is housed in the LOFTID re-entry vehicle, holds sensor and camera data gathered during LOFTID's journey. The information will show the team how effectively LOFTID operated during the demonstration and will include the temperatures and pressures that the heat shield encountered. Since the EDM was meant to provide a backup source of flight data that could be recovered upon splashdown, the LOFTID re-entry vehicle also collects this information. Just in case the team is unable to locate the re-entry vehicle itself, this is being done.

During the flight demonstration, the EDM will be released from the spacecraft at a height of around 50,000 feet after the LOFTID re-entry vehicle re-enters Earth's atmosphere. The module will be released by an electrical current via a spring-loaded mechanism. It should land within 10 miles of the spacecraft's splash-down location when it falls into the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Hawaii.

Multiple communication technologies that communicate GPS coordinates through a weather balloon-mounted relay launched by the recovery team will be used by the team to locate the EDM. The hand-held ground station device, which is a customized cellphone with a tracking app, receives the coordinates from the relay. As the EDM drifts in the ocean, the phone will update the latitude and longitude coordinates, range, and arrow pointing to the EDM's location.

The LOFTID team put the EDM through a number of functional tests as well as a number of practice recovery tests in order to get ready to discover the EDM. The lemon-sized object was sought after by scientists and engineers using a variety of techniques.

The tiny EDM is prepared to play a significant role in LOFTID's flight demonstration following these productive tests on land and at sea.

NASA's LOFTID, or Low-Earth Orbit Flight Test of an Inflatable Decelerator, is an atmospheric re-entry heat shield that exhibits a cross-cutting aeroshell. How to transport hefty payloads is one of the issues NASA faces for locations with an atmosphere because conventional rigid aeroshells are limited by a rocket's shroud size (experiments, equipment, and people). One solution is an inflated aeroshell that can be set up on a scale much greater than the shroud. This technology makes a wide range of NASA missions to places like Mars, Venus, and Titan, as well as a return to Earth, possible.

The crew at Joint Base Langley-Eustis was allowed to collaborate with the American Army during the water test. The test was conducted in the same manner as a man overboard drill. The EDM was thrown into the water. The team's search for the EDM only required them to make one course correction while aboard a U.S. Army Landing Craft Utility boat.

The test gave Mosher invaluable experience working on a ship's deck and an understanding of how dependable the signal might be while it is bobbing in the water, she added. Being able to organize the entire activity and collaborate with the U.S. Army was another career high point.