Nasa has launched a research rocket from the agency’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia to check a supersonic parachute for landing its next rover on Mars.
The rocket launched on Friday carried the Advanced Supersonic Parachute Inflation analysis Experiment (ASPIRE) from Nasa’s jet propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in metropolis, California.
The payload descended by parachute and splashed-down within the Atlantic Ocean twenty eight miles from Wallops Island, Nasa said. 
The parachute was with success recovered and came to Wallops for knowledge retrieval and inspection.
The suborbital launch was designed to mimic conditions that the parachute would possibly experience throughout a Mars landing, Space.com according.
“This is really a strength test of that Mars 2020 (rover) style,” Jeremy Hill, a mechanical engineer at JPL, was quoted as speech communication throughout a webcast of the launch.
“We need to induce as near to the Martian surroundings as we will.”
The payload could be a bullet-nosed, cylindrical structure holding a supersonic parachute, the parachute’s readying mechanism, and also the test’s high-definition instrumentation — as well as cameras — to record knowledge.
The Mars 2020 rover mission is regular to launch in July/August 2020 once Earth and Mars area unit in smart positions relative to every alternative for landing on Mars.
The mission takes future step in addressing questions on potential always on Mars by not solely seeking signs of habitable conditions on Mars within the ancient past, however also looking for signs of past microbial life itself.
