A recovery team will use GPS to search an approximately 900-mile area of the Pacific Ocean for a bright yellow capsule after a November 2022 demonstration of an inflatable heat shield. About the same size and shape as a large lemon, the capsule carries crucial data. This tiny package is an ejecta
. LOFTID will demonstrate an inflatable heat shield technology that could potentially be used to land humans on. Once the LOFTID vehicle reaches space following the launch, the heat shield will inflate, then the LOFTID re-entry vehicle will enter Earth’s atmosphere and splash down in the Pacific Ocean.Located in the LOFTID re-entry vehicle, the EDM contains both sensor and camera data recorded during LOFTID’s flight.
After the LOFTID re-entry vehicle re-enters Earth’s atmosphere during the flight demonstration, the EDM will be released from the spacecraft at an altitude of about 50,000 feet. An electrical current will trigger the module’s release through a spring-loaded system. It will free-fall into the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Hawaii and should land within 10 miles of the spacecraft’s splash-down location.
To test the recovery procedure, first, the team experimented by hiding the EDM on land. In a large game of hide-and-seek, Saulman would hide the small component for the recovery team to track. Through many iterations of the recovery test at Langley and in the surrounding area, the team was able to practice and verify their techniques and equipment for tracking and recovery.
Mechanical engineer Anjie Emmett holds the LOFTID ejectable data module, the small, yellow, lemon-shaped components will hold a copy of all of the data recorded during the technology demonstration. Credit: NASA After these successful tests on land and sea, the small EDM is ready to play a big part in LOFTID’s flight demonstration.