From launch to splashdown, all in under half an hour: not bad for an inflatable spacecraft.
This morning NASA鈥檚 IRVE-3 鈥� the third and heaviest of a series of 鈥� successfully launched from NASA鈥檚 Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia at 7:01 am local time. It landed in the Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of North Carolina, just 20 minutes later.
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Like IRVE and IRVE-2 before it, IRVE-3 has an inflatable outer shell, which slows and protects the craft as it enters an atmosphere at hypersonic speeds.
In order to test the possibility of carrying heavier payloads through planetary atmospheres, IRVE-3 carried more than twice the payload of its predecessors and was installed with a heat shield, testing its ability to withstand atmospheric re-entry. The team also tweaked the craft鈥檚 centre of gravity to see if this would lead to more precise manoeuvres than in previous tests.
鈥楶erfect launch鈥�
The vehicle travelled some 450 kilometres over the Atlantic Ocean, outside Earth鈥檚 atmosphere. The 308-kilogram inflatable heat shield 鈥� or aeroshell 鈥� separated from the nose cone of its launch vehicle and was then inflated with nitrogen into a mushroom shape before falling through Earth鈥檚 atmosphere.
鈥淭he launch went perfectly,鈥� says of NASA鈥檚 IRVE-3 team.
Planned initially to enable the exploration of higher-altitude terrain on Mars, the IRVE-3 team is also anticipating its use as a link between here and the International Space Station, transferring waste and other cargo.
While the launch of IRVE-3 was not intended to show off a finished product, 鈥渋t demonstrates that the technology is valid, and can be scaled up for future mission applications鈥�, says Hughes.
