Nasa’s LDSD Programme

The heavier planetary landers of tomorrow  will require much larger drag devices than any now in use to slow them down — and those next-generation drag devices will need to be deployed at higher supersonic speeds to safely land vehicle, crew and cargo. NASA’s Low-Density Supersonic Decelerator (LDSD) Technology Demonstration Mission, led by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, has conducted full-scale, stratospheric tests of these breakthrough technologies high above Earth to prove their value for future missions to Mars.

Here is a talk on this new technology from Dr. Mark Adler, Project Manager & Dr. Ian Clark, Principal Investigator, JPL