Low-Earth Orbit Flight Test of an Inflatable Decelerator (LOFTID) was a NASA mission to test inflatable reentry systems.
/ref> It was the first such test of an inflatable decelerator from Earth-orbital speed.
LOFTID was launched on an Atlas V 401
Atlas V is an expendable launch system and the fifth major version in the Atlas launch vehicle family. It was developed by Lockheed Martin and has been operated by United Launch Alliance (ULA) since 2006. Primarily used to launch payloads for t ...
in November 2022 as a secondary payload, along with the JPSS
The Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS) is the latest generation of U.S. polar-orbiting, non-geosynchronous, environmental satellites. JPSS will provide the global environmental data used in numerical weather prediction models for forecasts, and ...
-2 weather satellite.[NASA Launched an Inflatable Flying Saucer, Then Landed It in the Ocean]
/ref>
History
LOFTID is the latest in a string of successful Hypersonic Inflatable Aerodynamic Decelerator (HIAD
Atmospheric entry (sometimes listed as Vimpact or Ventry) is the movement of an object from outer space into and through the gases of an atmosphere of a planet, dwarf planet, or natural satellite. Atmospheric entry may be ''uncontrolled entr ...
) development efforts. HIADs have a Viking-era genesis; developed by engineers at the NASA Langley Research Center as a possible system for crewed reentry. However, HIAD development ceased in the mid-1970s when it was shown disk-gap-band supersonic parachutes were suitable for the Viking, Pioneer Venus and Galileo mission environments. More recently, the need to enable robotic and crewed missions with larger payload mass has generated new investment in HIAD development. Starting in 2006 with the Program to Advance Inflatable Decelerators for Atmospheric Entry (PAIDAE), HIADs have undergone a series of incremental development efforts including design and analysis, ground based materials testing, manufacturing, wind-tunnel testing and flight tests and demonstrations. Two successful NASA Langley Research Center
The Langley Research Center (LaRC or NASA Langley), located in Hampton, Virginia, near the Chesapeake Bay front of Langley Air Force Base, is the oldest of NASA's field centers. LaRC has focused primarily on aeronautical research but has also ...
led sub-orbital flight demonstrations of HIAD technology have occurred; Inflatable Reentry Vehicle Experiment 2 (IRVE-2) and IRVE-3
Design
It inflates to 6 metres (about 20 feet) in diameter.[LOFTID cutaway]
/ref> thermal protection layer on one side.[LOFTID factsheet]
/ref>
Launch, deployment, and results
Launch and deployment (inflation, separation and splashdown from the Atlas V Centaur 2nd stage) were successful.Mach
The Mach number (M or Ma), often only Mach, (; ) is a dimensionless quantity in fluid dynamics representing the ratio of flow velocity past a Boundary (thermodynamic), boundary to the local speed of sound.
It is named after the Austrian physi ...
29, reached a peak deceleration of about 9 g, and splashed down under a subsonic parachute near Hawaii.[ NASA stated on November 17 that LOFTID was a "huge success" and able to be used on future missions to Mars.][
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Commercial interest
Dr. Cheatwood reports that about a dozen companies have contacted him to express interest in the technology. [
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See also
* Inflatable decelerator, including NASA's IRVE and HIAD
Atmospheric entry (sometimes listed as Vimpact or Ventry) is the movement of an object from outer space into and through the gases of an atmosphere of a planet, dwarf planet, or natural satellite. Atmospheric entry may be ''uncontrolled entr ...
References
{{NASA-stub
NASA programs
Spaceflight technology
Inflatable aircraft