Flying Saucers Made by Humans, Not Aliens, Take Off [Reading Science]

NASA to Conduct Test Flight of 'Expandable Decelerator' on Next Month 1st
Deploys Upon Landing to Ensure Atmospheric Drag and Shock Absorption
Designed to Send Heavy Robo-Humans for Mars and Other Extraterrestrial Planet Exploration
'Flying Saucer' Shape Resembling UFO

The new concept aircraft 'Inflatable Decelerator' being developed by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Its shape is similar to the 'flying saucer' that aliens are said to ride. Photo by NASA.

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Bong-su] The flat and round-shaped "flying saucer" is considered a typical form of extraterrestrial unidentified flying objects (UFOs). However, its existence has never been definitively revealed to humans. Amid this, NASA's "flying saucer" is scheduled for a test launch on the 1st of next month, drawing attention.

NASA announced on the 6th (local time) that it plans to test launch an inflatable decelerator shaped like a flying saucer into low Earth orbit using an Atlas V rocket from the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on the 1st of next month. The round, circular saucer shape with a thruster attached at the bottom center looks exactly like the typical "flying saucer" UFO. However, this inflatable decelerator was developed for a purpose slightly different from "flying." It is equipment designed to slow down and safely land spacecraft carrying heavy objects on planets with thin atmospheres and weak gravity, such as Mars.

According to the Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI) blog, NASA scientists were inspired by the ring stacking toy that children play with. Observing plastic rings of different sizes stacked like a tower, they designed the device to be folded and stored during launch to minimize volume and weight, then later inflated like a ring-shaped balloon to maximize friction with the atmosphere to reduce speed and protect the payload in the center from impact during landing.

Photo of the flying saucer 'VZ-9 Avrocar' developed by the US Air Force in the 1950s Source: Korea Aerospace Research Institute blog

Since 2014, it has been developed as a flying saucer-shaped vehicle called the Low Density Supersonic Decelerator (LDSD), and was planned to be used on a Mars exploration lander in early 2018 but was delayed due to development setbacks. The LDSD was designed as a giant disc-shaped vehicle with a diameter of 4.6 meters, thrust of 17,500 pounds, a solid-fuel rocket engine, an inflatable tube-type decelerator, and parachutes.

NASA plans to verify the flight performance of this "flying saucer" in the upper atmosphere of Earth, where the atmospheric density is similar to that of Mars, during this test launch. Mars has weak gravity but a thin atmosphere, requiring landing vehicles to withstand speeds of Mach 3.5. NASA aims to secure enough deceleration power and safety using the inflatable decelerator to safely land heavy rovers and humans.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Air Force once failed to develop an actual flying saucer in the late 1950s. Named the VZ-9 Avrocar, this flying saucer was pursued by the Air Force to create a supersonic circular-wing fighter. After about five years of development, a disc-shaped vehicle with a diameter of 5.5 meters and a thickness of 1.07 meters was produced. The goal was to reach a speed of 438 km/h at an altitude of 3,000 meters, but test flights only achieved 56 km/h at 0.91 meters altitude and produced extreme noise, leading to its cancellation in 1961.