NASA engineers believe that lightweight, inflatable heat shield can be used to slow the aircraft when landing on the Martian atmosphere, which is much thinner than Earth's.
New technologies are needed to get astronauts to Mars because manned spacecraft would have to be much larger than anything previously landed on the planet.
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Mazero
In the early 50s they made an inflatable aircraft for spies to easily escape a tough situation. After an accident where turbulence scuttled the plane, the project was scrapped. There may be a plethora of new applications for these Kevlar balloons.
Pete
I have every respect for the adventurer, most particularly NASA. Without them we would still be using an abacus rather than a laptop, but I wouldn't count on it!
Kyle Stone
Inflatable units are an awesome idea because there is nothing ever flying around space that could ever potentially even burp the exterior skin.