LOFTID from NASA is aimed at making space exploration safer

On November 10, LOFTID was launched on an Atlas V rocket by the United Launch Alliance

The global space industry will require technologies that make atmospheric entry countless times safer as it prepares for human space exploration of Mars and beyond. This is where NASA's heatshield technology for the Low-Earth Orbit Flight Test of an Inflatable Decelerator (LOFTID) comes into play. The innovative heat shield technology was successfully tested in orbit for the first time this year by the US space agency. On November 10, LOFTID was launched on an Atlas V rocket by the United Launch Alliance. It was launched into orbit at a height of about 78 miles (125 km) and splashed down in the ocean close to Hawaii about two hours later.

The test flight was conducted to evaluate the possibility of a technology that might one day allow space missions to carry a small, flexible heat shield that could be unfolded before the probe entered the atmosphere of its target planet. The risks of entering an atmosphere that is different from Earth's could make this technology essential. For instance, the atmosphere of Mars is substantially thinner than that of Earth, and the NASA Perseverance rover's fall into its atmosphere is infamously referred to as "seven minutes of fear." LOFTID is one of a number of technologies made for space that could also have very important uses on Earth.