This NASA parachute device could return science payloads to Earth from space - Watch

Image credit: NASA

New Delhi: NASA launched its Technology Educational Satellite (TechEdSat-5) from the International Space Station (ISS)'s NanoRacks platform into low-Earth orbit this week to demonstrate a critical technology that may allow safe return of science payloads to Earth from space.

After a two-month stay aboard the space station, NASA's TechEdSat-5 that launched December 9, 2016, was deployed into low-Earth orbit on March 6, 2017.

Video credit: NASA's Ames Research Center/YouTube

Orbiting about 250 miles above Earth, the technology, called Exo-Brake, is a tension-based, flexible braking device resembling a cross-shaped parachute that opens from the rear of the small satellite to increase the drag.

This de-orbit device tests a hybrid system of mechanical struts and flexible cord with a control system that warps the Exo-Brake, explains NASA while adding that this will allow engineers to guide the spacecraft to a desired entry point without the use of fuel, enabling accurate landing for future payload return missions.

NASA says two additional technologies will be demonstrated on TechEdSat-5.

The project team seeks to develop building blocks for larger scale systems that might enable future small or nanosatellite missions to reach the surface of Mars and other planetary bodies in the solar system.