After an inflatable heat shield demonstration in November 2022, a recycling team will use GPS to search for a bright yellow capsule in an area about 900 miles of the Pacific Ocean. The capsule is about the same size and shape as a large lemon, carrying critical data.
This tiny package is a pop-up data module (EDM) for NASA technical demonstration, low-earth orbit flight test (LOFTID) of inflatable reducers. LOFTID will demonstrate an inflatable thermal shielding technology that is possible for human login Mars . Once the LOFTID aircraft arrives in space after launch, the heat shield will be inflated, and the LOFTID reentry will enter the Earth's atmosphere and splash down in the Pacific Ocean. Low Earth orbital flight test diagram of
inflatable reducer (LOFTID). Source: NASA
The EDM located in the LOFTID reentry vehicle contains sensor and camera data recorded during the LOFTID flight. The data will include the temperature and pressure experienced by the thermal shield and will show the team how LOFTID performs during the demonstration process. The LOFTID reentry vehicle will also record this data, as the EDM is designed as a redundant source of flight data and will be restored upon splashing. This is just to prevent the team from being unable to recover from reentering the aircraft itself.
, head of EDM subsystem at NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, said: "EDM was created to provide the team with an auxiliary way to restore flight test data. The reason we have EDM comes from the flight test of the inflatable reentry vehicle experiment, in which the team never recovered the aircraft."
Robert Deerman snatched the LOFTID ejectable data module engineering development unit from the water during a recycling test. Source: NASA
After the LOFTID reentering vehicle reenters the Earth's atmosphere during the flight demonstration, the EDM will be released from the spacecraft at an altitude of approximately 50,000 feet. A stream of current will trigger the release of the module through a spring-loaded system. It freely falls into the Pacific Ocean on the Hawaiian coast and should land within 10 miles of the spacecraft's splash-down position.
The group will be able to use multiple communication systems to locate the EDM, which sends GPS coordinates by retrieving the repeater mounted on weather balloon emitted by the group. The repeater transfers coordinates to a handheld ground station device, an improved phone with tracking applications. The phone will display latitude and longitude coordinates, ranges, and arrows pointing to the EDM position, which updates as the EDM drifts through the ocean.
In preparation for finding EDM, the LOFTID team conducted many functional tests on EDM, as well as a series of practical recovery tests. Scientists and engineers tested the limits of their equipment by using a variety of methods to find this lemon-sized object, from playing hide-and-seek with it on land to tracking and recycling EDM from Atlantic .
To test the recycling program, first, the team conducted experiments by hiding EDM on land. In a large hide-and-seek game, Solman hides widgets for the recycling team to track. Through repeated recycling tests in Langley and surrounding areas, the team was able to practice and verify their tracking and recycling techniques and equipment.
Next, the experiment was transferred from land to water. The team simulated their tests in the way they expected the actual LOFTID EDM recovery, implementing flight-like techniques and measurement techniques for practice in the Atlantic Ocean.
"When we turned on our tracking device, we released a weather balloon with relays," said Robert Mosher of NASA Langley, who is the head of EDM's water recycling test. "In about 10 minutes, we successfully locked a signal and received the latitude and longitude coordinates."
mechanical engineer Anjie Emmett held the LOFTID to pop up the data module, and this yellow, lemon-shaped widget will store copies of all data recorded during the technical demonstration.
During the water test, the team was able to work with the U.S. military at the Langley-Eustus Joint Base. They test it like they did an in-water drill.The EDM was thrown onto the ship. On the US Army landing craft, the team only needs to correct the direction once in the search for EDM.
"This test provides an indispensable exercise to work on the deck of the boat and understand how reliable the signal is when it sways in the ocean," Mosher said. "This is also a highlight of my career, being able to coordinate activities and work with the U.S. military." After these successful tests on land and sea, small EDMs are ready to play an important role in LOFTID's flight demonstration.
NASA's inflatable reducer low-Earth orbit flight test, or LOFTID, is demonstrating a cross- aerosol shell for atmosphere reentry - a thermal shield. As the current rigid aerosol shells are limited by rocket shield size, one of the challenges NASA faces in atmospheric destinations is how to deliver heavy payloads (experiments, equipment, and personnel). One answer is an inflatable aerosol shell that is deployed much larger than the shield. This technology has enabled various proposed missions by NASA, such as Mars, Venus, Titan and return to Earth to destinations.
LOFTID is to commemorate Bernard Coot, senior project manager of the United Launch Alliance (ULA), who died in August 2020 and is an advocate for technologies such as LOFTID that can reduce the cost of entering space.
LOFTID is scheduled to be launched in November with ULA Atlas V, as an auxiliary payload along with the Joint Polar Survey System-2 (JPSS-2), a polar orbit meteorological satellite. The
LOFTID project is managed and funded through NASA's Technical Demonstration Mission Program, which is part of the agency's Space Technology Mission Bureau. The project is led by NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, in collaboration with the United Launch Alliance and is assisted by NASA Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley , Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, and Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California. The NASA Launch Services program at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida manages the launch services.
