The launch system has one more test scheduled for next summer. What exactly gets tested is very much To Be Determined after analysis of this most recent test data. While the 6-meter SAID-R inflatable donut has been performing gorgeously, an alternate 8-meter SAID-E design has been undergoing rocket tests and might make it into the field next year. As for the parachute: it looks like it’s time for another meeting of the Supreme Council of Parachute Experts that worked on the last redesign to try, try, and try again in the hopes of finding something strong enough to handle the brutal forces of landing on Mars.

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If we can fix the parachute design and unlock this new landing system technology, we’ll be upgrading on the current parachutes that have been used since 1976. LDSD will not only double the current payload of Mars-bound robots to 1,500 kilograms (3,300 pounds), increasing how much science we can do, but also increase landing accuracy from a 10 kilometer (6.5 mile) region to a bullseye of just 1.6 kilometers (1 mile) and open up higher-elevation landing zones. This isn’t easy, but it’s worth the test flights, redesigns, and time to push our technology to new limits for exploration.

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Next time the LDSD is dangling from this tower in 2016, will it be carrying a parachute that can handle decelerating multi-ton payloads on Mars to subsonic speeds? Image credit: NASA

Figuring out how to slow down on Mars is not a simple problem, and designing the world’s largest parachute to handle the enormous stresses of supersonic deceleration is a painfully challenging undertaking.

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The initial results of this test flight were heartbreaking, disappointing, and not what anyone was hoping for when munching on their good-luck peanuts, but it is exactly why we test this equipment here on Earth before entrusting it with our charming robots on interplanetary journeys. We’ll learn from this and keep trying, but it would’ve been so much more fun to celebrate an unmitigated success.

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2016: More peanuts. Image credit: NASA

It took years to design the new prototype technology, a year to refine it since the last tests, days to wait for weather suitable for a test flight, hours to gently float the craft to testing altitude, and just seconds to realize that the parachute didn’t inflate. Rocket science is damn hard, and damn heartbreaking.

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LDSD on its way to the launch tower for testing this summer, and will be back in Hawaii in summer 2016 for another test flight. Image credit: NASA

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