Space agency completes heat shielding tests for future Mars vehicles

American space agency, NASA, has announced that it has successfully completed key heat shield tests for future exploration spacecraft that will scout the red planet for any forms of life.

NASA’s Adaptive Deployable Entry and Placement Technology (ADEPT) is a mechanically-deployable heat shield concept which uses carbon fabric – a flexible heat shield that expands to “open” like an umbrella.

Engineers at NASA’s Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley, California successfully completed heating simulation testing of an ADEPT model under conditions similar to entering that Martian atmosphere, according to a report by NDTV Gadgets.

The report further states that during the testing, the surface temperatures on the test object reached an excess of 1,704 degrees Celsius.

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Extensive instrumentation and imaging products from the test be utilized to validate how the materials used will respond to the testing conditions, NASA said in a statement.

As NASA missions to Mars progress, science and complex human exploration mission and the space crafts used in these missions will need larger heat shields to protect against the extreme heat of entering the planet’s atmosphere and decelerating at a safe altitude in the extremely thin Martian atmosphere.