This article was taken from the December 2014 issue of WIRED magazine. Be the first to read WIRED's articles in print before they're posted online, and get your hands on loads of additional content by subscribing online.
When the European Space Agency's ExoMars mission attempts to land on the Red Planet in 2019, it will hurtle towards the surface at 17,000kph -- and that's after its parachute has opened. Ever since British Mars probe Beagle 2 vanished in 2003, scientists have sought safer ways to land. Italian aerospace firm
Aero Sekur has a solution: a doughnut-like fabric structure that deflates upon impact, releasing gas like a huge whoopee cushion.
The airbag comprises a ring of inflatable segments that collapse one by one in the right order to keep the landing vehicle upright.
Sensors calculate to within nanoseconds the landscape's shape and angle in order to initiate the right sequence. Aero Sekur has tested a full-scale version of the doughnut by dropping it on to its factory site in Italy with enough force to account for the Martian atmosphere, demonstrating the system can cope with 45° slopes and metre-wide boulders.
The firm is waiting for the ESA to confirm its use with ExoMars before beginning final trials. In the meantime, there might be a use for it on Earth. "We could apply the same principles to [crash systems for] helicopters," says Aero Sekur chairman Mark Butler. "We're trying to make it a dual-use system."
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
