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    • Inflatable heat shield a 'huge success' that could land humans on Mars, NASA says

    This image captured by the United Arab Emirates' "Amal" ("Hope") probe shows the planet Mars on Feb. 10, 2021. (Mohammed bin Rashid Space Center/UAE Space Agency, via AP, File) This image captured by the United Arab Emirates' "Amal" ("Hope") probe shows the planet Mars on Feb. 10, 2021. (Mohammed bin Rashid Space Center/UAE Space Agency, via AP, File)
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    When a and faced the brutal reentry of Earth's atmosphere last week, the aeroshell survived — and NASA officials have deemed it a "huge success."

    The technology demonstration could be the foundation of landing technology that puts humans on the surface of Mars.

    The Low-Earth Orbit Flight Test of an Inflatable Decelerator technology demonstration, or LOFTID, hitched a November 10 ride to space as a secondary payload along with the Joint Polar Satellite System-2, a polar weather satellite.

    After LOFTID separated from the polar satellite and inflated, the aeroshell reentered the atmosphere from low-Earth orbit.

    Upon reentry, LOFTID faced temperatures that reached 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit (1,649 degrees Celsius) and hit speeds of nearly 18,000 miles per hour (28,968 kilometres per hour) — the ultimate test for the materials used to construct the inflatable structure, which includes a woven ceramic fabric called silicon carbide.

    The about two hours after launch, hundreds of miles off the coast of Hawaii, where a team on a boat was stationed to recover the items.

    Preliminary data helped the team determine if the aeroshell was effective at slowing down and surviving the steep dive from low-Earth orbit to the ocean. The result: "a pretty resounding yes," said Trudy Kortes, director of technology demonstrations at NASA's Space Technology Mission Directorate.

    A full study of LOFTID's performance is expected to take about a year.

    The mission aims to test the inflatable heat shield technology that could also land larger robotic missions on Venus or Saturn's moon Titan or return hefty payloads to Earth. Current aeroshells, or heat shields, in use depend on the size of a rocket's shroud. But an inflatable aeroshell could circumnavigate that dependency — and open up sending heavier missions to different planets.

    The LOFTID demonstration measured about 20 feet (6 metres) across.

    When a spacecraft enters the atmosphere of a planet, it's hit with aerodynamic forces, which help slow it down. On Mars, where the atmosphere is less than 1 per cent the density of Earth's atmosphere, extra help is needed to create the drag necessary to slow and safely land a spacecraft.

    That's why NASA engineers think a large deployable aeroshell like LOFTID, which inflates and is protected by a flexible heat shield, could put on the brakes while traveling down through the Martian atmosphere. The aeroshell is designed to create more drag in the upper atmosphere to help the spacecraft slow down sooner, which also prevents some of the superintense heating.

    Currently, NASA can land 1 metric ton (2,205 pounds) on the Martian surface, like the car-size Perseverance rover. But something like LOFTID could land between 20 to 40 metric tons (44,092 to 88,184 pounds) on Mars, said Joe Del Corso, LOFTID project manager at NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia.

    When the recovery team hauled the aeroshell out of the ocean, they were surprised to find that the outside "looked absolutely pristine," said John DiNonno, LOFTID chief engineer at NASA Langley. "You would not have known it had a very intense reentry," he said.

    In fact, the inflatable structure is in such good condition, it looks like it could be reused and flown again, DiNonno said, but it needs rigorous testing before making such a determination.

    There is still a tremendous amount of data to process, including specific temperatures LOFTID faced at different points in its flight.

    After the full study is complete, scientists could use the findings to work on the next, larger generation of LOFTID. The experiment was designed to fit as a ride-along demo with the polar satellite. Next, LOFTID needs to be scaled up to test how it would perform on a mission to Mars, which might require increasing its overall size by three to four times.

    The mission, which launched just days before the and back, is a "huge success" that shares a common goal with the Artemis program, which aims to return humans to the moon and eventually land crews on Mars.

    "In order to put people into space on the moon or send them to Mars, we need stuff — lots of it, which means we need to put a lot of mass into space," Del Corso said.

    "We now have the ability to both put heavy payloads into space and to bring them back down. These two successes are huge steps in enabling human access and exploration. We're going to space and we want to be able to stay there."

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    The province's public security minister said he was "shocked" Thursday amid reports that a body believed to be that of a 14-year-old boy was found this week near a Hells Angels hideout near Quebec City.

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    Canada

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    • The Montreal couple from Mexico and their three children facing deportation have received a temporary residence permit.

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    • The head of a committee monitoring the government's response to the inquiry into the 2020 Nova Scotia mass killing says she's pleased with progress made so far.

    • The University of Ottawa's special advisor on antisemitism says he has resigned following posts he made on social media celebrating the pager explosions in Lebanon this week.

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    Business

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    • They say a dog is a man’s best friend. In the case of Darren Cropper, from Bonfield, Ont., his three-year-old Siberian husky and golden retriever mix named Bear literally saved his life.

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    • Vancouver Canucks goalie Thatcher Demko says he's been working his way back from a rare lower-body muscle injury since being sidelined in last season's playoffs.

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    Autos

    • An Ontario man says it is 'unfair' to pay a $1,500 insurance surcharge because his four-year-old SUV is at a higher risk of being stolen.

    • Video of a brazen daylight auto theft which shows a suspect running over a victim in a stolen luxury SUV has been released by police west of Toronto.

    • The plant was expected to produce batteries for a million electric vehicles a year. Once up and running, it was supposed to create hundreds of permanent jobs in a small southeastern Ontario municipality. But two years later, spending on the construction of the Umicore plant has been delayed in what the company calls a "significant worsening of the EV market context."

    Local Spotlight

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    The search for a missing ancient 28-year-old chocolate donkey ended with a tragic discovery Wednesday.

    The Royal Canadian Mounted Police is celebrating an important milestone in the organization's history: 50 years since the first women joined the force.

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    • An Ontario man says it is 'unfair' to pay a $1,500 insurance surcharge because his four-year-old SUV is at a higher risk of being stolen.

    • In the middle of the small crowd — near the tents, the lineup of kids awaiting face painting, the snack table — stood a jubilant Chiara Padovani. 'When I say 'tenant, you say 'power,'' she commanded to several dozen tenants, who chanted back with gusto. What looked like a summer block party in front of two north-end Toronto apartment buildings last month was a celebration of what renters who withheld payments for months called a 'huge victory.'

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    • BREAKING NEWS

      BREAKING NEWS

      A man has been taken to hospital in life-threatening condition following a stabbing incident that happened on Baseline Road in the early hours of Friday morning, according to the Ottawa Paramedic Service.

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    • The Montreal couple from Mexico and their three children facing deportation have received a temporary residence permit.

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    • Premier François Legault's approval rating continued to rise this summer, according to the Angus Reid Institute. After reaching a low at the end of 2023, his support rose by three percentage points over the summer to 39 per cent.

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    • Police are trying to identify a man who approached a woman and child in Wellesley.

    • A gym teacher at a private Christian school in Saskatoon has been charged. Terra MacEwan, 44, is charged with assault with a weapon. A Saskatoon mother who spoke with CTV News says her autistic son was MacEwan's victim.

    • Thomas Hamp says he believed secret police were out to kidnap, torture, and kill him when he fatally stabbed his girlfriend Emily Sanche in February of 2022.

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    • Standing up, speaking out, and showing solidarity — survivors and supporters gathered in the core to take back the night in Windsor. The city is just one of a growing list of communities that have declared intimate partner violence (IPV) an epidemic.

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    • A Vulcan, Alta., man has been charged with a Lethbridge woman's murder after her body was found in the Oyen area.

    • A Lethbridge couple got a good reminder as to why you should keep your vehicle doors locked at all times.

    • Lethbridge residents who live near the police range can expect to hear plenty of shots fired Wednesday and Thursday.

    • A new community health profile in the Algoma District shows the area is significantly below provincial averages in a number of health metrics.

    • North Bay Police Service says one person has died following an industrial accident at the Ontario Northland Transportation Commission Rail Yard on Tuesday.

    • Three northern Ontario residents are charged with drug trafficking after the vehicle they were in got stuck along a bush road off Highway 17 on Monday.

    N.L.

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