
Bound to fail
Not a single mention of a brave Playmonaut!
NASA has announced it's poised to do an airborne test of its Low-Density Supersonic Decelerator (LDSD) - a test platform for technologies that may one day safely deposit larger payloads on the surface of Mars. The LDSD at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Pic: NASA/JPL The LDSD flying saucer at NASA's Jet Propulsion …
Well that isn't going to happen. If they want to be bought out they should develop a simple messenger app backed on to, I don't know, a website where you can make playmobil reconstructions, and market it as the next big thing to 15 year-olds wanting to send pictures of their naughty bits to one another.
They'll never get there experimenting with novel technologies. It just gets in the way, you know?
I'd like to have my time over again and be a NASA engineer. It looks like FUN!! (Then again, I'd probably be on the team that analyses the results and prepares spreadsheets and graphs for middle management meetings; then have to double check and justify the budget projection figures. Reality has always bitten me.)
So they're going for the launch of the rocket "after release" - how will they get it to point up? (presumably without the use of a fantastical flying truss(tm))
How much does a rocket that can go from 120000ft to 180000ft, can travel at mach 3.5 and carry an inflatable decelerato saucer weigh? How big a balloon will that need??