NASA is going to take heavy payloads on Mars

NASA will try again this weekend to launch the first test flight of new technology designed to help land heavy payloads on Mars.

In the Missile Assembly Building at the US Navy's Pacific Missile Range Facility, a saucer-shaped test vehicle hangs during a measurement. The vehicle is part of the Low-Density Supersonic Decelerator project, is designed to land large payloads on Mars. The facility is located in Kaua‘i, Hawaii. The LDSD test vehicle is equipped with a 100-foot-wide (30.5 meters) parachute and a saucer-shaped device called a Supersonic Inflatable Aerodynamic Decelerator (SIAD). This gear is being developed to help slow the descent of big, heavy payloads — such as human habitat modules — through the thin Martian atmosphere.