{"id":19896,"date":"2022-12-05T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-12-04T23:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/?post_type=purple_issue&p=19896"},"modified":"2022-12-09T11:55:54","modified_gmt":"2022-12-09T10:55:54","slug":"beat-the-heat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/2022\/12\/05\/beat-the-heat\/","title":{"rendered":"Beat the heat"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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LANGLEY RESEARCH CENTER, <\/strong>VIRGINIA, USA <\/p>\n\n

This structure might be the key to landing experiments, equipment and possibly even people on Mars. And it\u2019s inflatable. But it\u2019s not for cushioning the impact of hitting the planet\u2019s surface; it\u2019s for surviving the heat of atmospheric re-entry. <\/p>\n\n

NASA is developing it as an alternative to the rigid heatshields currently used to protect payloads as they pass through a planet\u2019s atmosphere. The bigger the heatshield, the more heat it can absorb as it generates drag to slow the craft for a safer landing. The problem is, a rigid heatshield\u2019s dimensions are constrained by the size of the rocket it has to fit inside. An inflatable shield, however, can be stowed for launch, then inflated to a larger size when it\u2019s deployed. <\/p>\n\n

This one is six metres wide when inflated, and if all goes well, it\u2019ll have undergone its first test (by re-entering Earth\u2019s atmosphere from low orbit) by the time you read this. <\/p>\n\n

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VISIT US FOR MORE AMAZING IMAGES:
Pinterest<\/a> \u2022 Instagram<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section>\n\n

IMAGE: NASA\/GREG SWANSON<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

LANGLEY RESEARCH CENTER, VIRGINIA, USA This structure might be the key to landing experiments, equipment and possibly even people on Mars. And it\u2019s inflatable. But it\u2019s not for cushioning the impact of hitting the planet\u2019s surface; it\u2019s for surviving the heat of atmospheric re-entry. NASA is developing it as an alternative to the rigid heatshields […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":21045,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ub_ctt_via":"","purple_page_number":"8","purple_custom_meta_purple_page_number":"8","purple_seq_number":"1","purple_custom_meta_purple_seq_number":"1","purple_source_article":"article_8-1.xml","purple_custom_meta_purple_source_article":"article_8-1.xml","purple_source_issue":"December-2022","purple_custom_meta_purple_source_issue":"December-2022","purple_external_id":"December-2022-8-1","purple_custom_meta_purple_external_id":"December-2022-8-1","purple_issue_code":"|0000089661||","purple_custom_meta_purple_issue_code":"|0000089661||","purple_android_product":"com.focus.magazine.issue385","purple_custom_meta_purple_android_product":"com.focus.magazine.issue385","purple_ios_product":"com.focus.magazine.issue385","purple_custom_meta_purple_ios_product":"com.focus.magazine.issue385","purple_web_product":"","purple_custom_meta_purple_web_product":"","purple_publication_id":"0f422ad1-c939-476d-9f82-a410052ad4c3","purple_migrated":"","kt_blocks_editor_width":"","apple_news_api_created_at":"2022-12-05T12:08:10Z","apple_news_article-theme":"","apple_news_api_id":"104fb830-7bca-49ab-b585-2579685a1cfe","apple_news_api_modified_at":"2022-12-09T10:56:00Z","apple_news_api_revision":"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACQ==","apple_news_api_share_url":"https:\/\/apple.news\/AEE-4MHvKSau1hSV5aFoc_g","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_is_hidden":false,"apple_news_is_paid":true,"apple_news_is_preview":true,"apple_news_is_sponsored":false,"apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_article_theme":"","apple_news_sections":"[]"},"categories":[23],"tags":[15],"apple_news_notices":[],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2022\/12\/flight_load_test_4737_preview-scaled.jpg","author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"< 1","apple_news_title":""},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2022\/12\/flight_load_test_4737_preview-scaled.jpg",2560,1707,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2022\/12\/flight_load_test_4737_preview-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2022\/12\/flight_load_test_4737_preview-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2022\/12\/flight_load_test_4737_preview-768x512.jpg",768,512,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2022\/12\/flight_load_test_4737_preview-1024x683.jpg",800,534,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2022\/12\/flight_load_test_4737_preview-1536x1024.jpg",1536,1024,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2022\/12\/flight_load_test_4737_preview-2048x1366.jpg",2048,1366,true]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"LANGLEY RESEARCH CENTER, VIRGINIA, USA This structure might be the key to landing experiments, equipment and possibly even people on Mars. And it\u2019s inflatable. But it\u2019s not for cushioning the impact of hitting the planet\u2019s surface; it\u2019s for surviving the heat of atmospheric re-entry. NASA is developing it as an alternative to the rigid heatshields…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19896"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19896"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19896\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21122,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19896\/revisions\/21122"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21045"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19896"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19896"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19896"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}