Engineers have safely landed spacecraft on Mars nine times. But now they're investigating whether crash landing is the best way to reach the Red Planet.
SHIELD, seen here in this artist's concept, is a potential alternative approach to the costly entry, descent, and landing strategies currently use by NASA to get spacecraft safely to the surface of Mars. NASA has always taken great care when it comes to touching down on Mars, relying on parachutes, airbags, and even jetpacks to ensure their spacecraft safely reach the surface. This method has worked for them nine times in the past.
Preparing for the final step in this process made engineers wonder: If such a hard landing could work on Earth, could it work on Mars as well? Following the mock crash landing, all the electronic devices inside SHIELD were left largely unscathed, with only some superfluous plastic components damaged. And while SHIELD did flip after its initial impact, the team suspects this was due to the metal sheet it struck rather than the lander's design.
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