NASA EDGE Showcases Three Technology Demonstration Missions

Three NASA Technology Demonstration Missions -- the Deep Space Atomic Clock or DSAC project, the Solar Sail Demonstrator or SSD and the Low-Density Supersonic Decelerator or LDSD project -- are the subject of a new episode of NASA EDGE, the agency's energetic, informative video-podcast series.

Hosts Chris Giersch, Franklin Fitzgerald and Blair Allen visited various NASA field centers and partner facilities to showcase the projects and talk to key NASA personnel and other team members leading these technology endeavors.

Allen and Giersch visited NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., to talk, respectively, with Todd Ely, principal investigator for the DSAC project, and Ian Clark, principal investigator for the LDSD project. Fitzgerald traveled to L'Garde Inc., in Tustin, Calif., to meet with Nathan Barnes, the chief operating officer for the company and principal investigator for the SSD project.

The 23-minute episode, which includes vivid artist renderings of technologies in action and video footage of the work in progress, illustrates how each of these projects is intended to revolutionize a vital spaceflight technology. The Deep Space Atomic Clock project, set for launch to Earth orbit in 2015, will enable more precise navigation in space.

The Solar Sail Demonstrator will use sunlight to provide a powerful alternative to traditional chemical propulsion, permitting a variety of low-cost missions in space. And the Low-Density Supersonic Decelerator, with flight tests set for 2014-15, could transform the way we slow down our spacecraft as they approach other worlds -- and could be used to support NASA missions to Mars launching as soon as 2020.