We’re testing a new way of landing on Mars… by crashing into its surface.
The Simplified High Impact Energy Landing Device (SHIELD) is a lander concept being tested at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). It could one day provide a new way for low-cost missions to land on Mars.
Rather than rely on parachutes or retrorockets, SHIELD would include a collapsible, accordion-like base to absorb the energy of a landing. A full-size prototype of the base was tested on Aug. 12, 2022. The prototype was hurled at the ground from the top of a nearly 90-foot-tall (27-meter-tall) drop tower at JPL. A steel plate ensured the impact was even harder than what would be experienced on Mars.
The design worked: After crushing against the steel plate at 110 mph (177 kph), several electronic components inside the SHIELD prototype, including a smartphone, survived the impact.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/California Academy of Sciences
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It’s just gonna be like the deep space 2 impactors. Have you ever learned?
omg scientist and their hubris with their millionary salaries. Arrogants. How many starving children could have been fed with that iPhone 14 you used for your wicked experiment. Such arrogance
Er..if I go to mars in the future I'd like to land on wheels please that method would hurt bad!😎😁👍
Awesome 👍👍
So when will we be able to buy a NASA phone case made out of this?
I want to see a bunch of these tests now, with different sized rocks and sand and stuff for the landing surface.
Very nice work. Tons of modeling, both hard and digital. I think It's gonna need "articulated kickstands",, to right itself from upside down possibly. Be crazy not to have them, and a waste. Could use them to angle the rigid solar panels for sunlight aiming, for maximum power produce, and shaking the gravel and grit off the top. Could even walk the thing down onto the Planitia, or just a short distance for better science. legs, , Kickstands,,something like that. Plop on the gound uninjured, like a Potato bug, then get up and walk away. That would win the Christmas Turkey at JPL.
If you could make a landing system without parachutes or propulsion landing. It would be complete game changer.
Cool! Shows some promise!!
I can imagine some students building this to protect an egg!
Wouldn't that be a bit too heavy for a phone protector.
You know, if you make it out of lightweight material, you wouldn't have to crash into Mars – it would just float down like a piece of paper.
It is amazing to see NASA has taken heavy inspiration from Kerbal Space Program and applied it to real life
No control sample? Would phone survive in some simple container filled with a foam? Poor demonstration of over engineered phone case…
It really crash?
One mission could bring a "padded" landing pad to use subsequently.
Crumple zones – used in cars for decades.
Next!…
There is something wrong in the text: if the test height is 27 metres and the test object is released in free fall, the impact velocity against the ground is not 177 km/h, but can only be ~83 km/h. best regards
But the probe seems to flip over after touchdown, so how will that be prevented?
Lithocapture is an enabling technology.
A hardened launcher could be incorporated: dropping a penetrator, capturing a sample and launching back to orbit in a matter of seconds!
So… Lithobraking?
Kerbal space program would be proud.
This is awesome JPL but can we let that NASA meatball logo go for good?
Is this noy going to have difficulty if it land on the edge of a large rock structure?
Dear NASA. Please give us the ability to comment on ALL your videos. I don't understand the inconsistency. Many thanks. 👍😎
It's a good concept try with humans