NASA is developing a supersonic flying saucer to deliver payloads to extraterrestrial worlds, CBS affiliate KCAL 9 reports:
It’s not exactly a flying saucer, but a new lightweight spacecraft from NASA soon hopes to reach the skies of distant planets in our solar system.
Officials with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) gave reporters a sneak peek Wednesday at its Low-Density Supersonic Decelerator (LDSD) project, which will launch a rocket-powered, saucer-shaped test vehicle into near-space on June 3 from the U.S. Navy’s Pacific Missile Range Facility on Kauai, Hawaii.
The LDSD mission will test what scientists are calling "breakthrough" technologies that will enable large payloads to be safely landed on the surface of Mars or other planetary bodies with atmospheres.
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"One of the big problems of exploring Mars is what we call ‘Entry, Descent and Landing’, getting stuff down to Mars," Sheehy said. "The atmosphere is much different than Earth, it’s much thinner than Earth."
Once tested, the devices could be used in Mars missions as early as 2018, officials said.