BDN, WABI Report on UMaine Testing of Materials for Possible Mars Mission
The Bangor Daily News and WABI (Channel 5) reported engineers with University of Maine’s Advanced Structures and Composites Center are working with NASA to perfect the Hypersonic Inflatable Aerodynamic Decelerator (HIAD). The HIAD is a spacecraft nose-mounted “giant cone of inner tubes” stacked like a ring toy that slows a spacecraft as it enters a planet’s atmosphere. The HIAD could make it possible for a spaceship large enough to carry astronauts and heavy loads of scientific equipment to explore Mars and beyond. “There aren’t that many people in the U.S., or around the world, working on these sorts of things,” said Bill Davids, chair of the civil and environmental engineering department and the John C. Bridge Professor at UMaine who is working on the project. “It really helps support education as well,” he added. The Sun Journal also carried the BDN report.