Inflatable Aerodynamic Decelerator: ISRO

The Inflatable Aerodynamic Decelerator (IAD) device, which could help with the cost-effective recovery of spent rocket stages and safely land payloads on distant planets, has recently undergone successful testing by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).

Image Source - Economictimes

What is IAD?

The Vikram Sarabhai Space Center of ISRO created, developed, and successfully test-flew the IAD (VSSC).
The Rohini-300 (RH300 Mk II) sounding rocket from Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launching Station successfully tested the IAD.
Scientists from India and beyond, as well as ISRO, frequently employ Rohini-sounding rockets to fly demonstrations of new technologies.
The IAD slows down an object that is falling through the atmosphere.
Initially, the IAD was folded and kept in the rocket's payload bay. The IAD was inflated at a height of around 84 km, at which point it began to fall through the atmosphere carrying a sounding rocket's cargo.
The IAD has consistently decreased the payload's velocity through aerodynamic drag while maintaining the expected trajectory.
Drag is the force that opposes an object's motion through a fluid. The term aerodynamic drag or air resistance is used when the fluid is a gas, such as air.

Importance:

The IAD offers enormous potential for a range of space applications, including recovering rocket spent stages, putting payloads on Mars or Venus, and creating habitats in orbit for manned spaceflight missions.
The newest technology may make it possible to safely land payloads on distant planets and retrieve spent rocket stages at a reasonable cost.
Future Mars and Venus expeditions by ISRO can also use it.

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Source: The Indian Express

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