Space Parachutes

Onboard the starship NRS Explorer, a space hostess named Star was preparing for an emergency landing on the surface of Mars. She received the commands from HQ Earth to land immediately. As Star started to gear up, a human child passenger tugged at her sleeve.

“Miss Star, what’s that on your back?” he asked, pointing to the bag she was fastening. Before she could respond, the ship’s intercom informed her, she had T-3 minutes before they reached a safe landing site.

“This is a parachute. It’s going to help me land safely on Mars.” Star replied with a reassuring smile.

“How would parachutes work in space? The same as Earth?”

“Well,” Star began, kneeling to the child’s level,” You know how parachutes are designed to slow down someone falling from high above in the sky?” The child nodded. “Back on Earth, they work by catching air that we have abundant at home to create drag. But in space, there’s no air, so regular parachutes can’t work here, so we make special ones. Also, we don’t use them until we’re close to a planet or moon with an atmosphere.”

Design of Martian Parachute through NASA’s lens

Mars Science Laboratory (Curiosity Rover): The mission used a disk-gap-band parachute, the largest ever built for a planetary mission. The size was over 50 meters long with a fully deployed diameter of nearly 16 meters. It was designed to deploy at Mach 2.2 in the Martian atmosphere. The parachute had 80 suspension lines.

Mars 2020 (Including the Perseverance Rover): The diameter of the parachute was 21.5 meters. It was a stronger version of the disk-gap-band parachute. It had encoded messages. In the inner portion, “DARE MIGHTY THINGS”. The outer band contained GPS coordinates of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in binary code.

Artist’s concept for Mars Science Laboratory Parachute System:

The illustration depicts the Curiosity rover inside the spacecraft’s back shell during descent, with the heat shield already discarded. The scene shows how the parachute, connected to the back shell, facilitates a controlled descent, enabling the onboard radar to assess landing conditions accurately.

“These parachutes are much larger than Earth ones because they need to catch as much of the thin Martian air as possible,” Star explained. “They’re also made of super-strong materials that can handle the high speeds of entering Mars’ atmosphere. When I jump, I’ll still be moving at super high speeds. That’s why we use something called a supersonic parachute. It’s designed to work even when we’re going faster than the speed of sound on Mars. Before the parachute opens, I’ll rely on a heat shield to protect me from the intense heat of entering the atmosphere. Then, I’ll use small thrusters to slow down just enough for the parachute to do its job.”

The intercom chimed, “T-5 seconds to site.”

“I need to get going.” Star made sure the child was safe in the ship and soon after she made her jump to the surface of Mars.