NASA Tested And Recovered This Insane Flying Saucer Mars Lander

On Thursday, NASA revealed that it in June it had tested a new lander design for future interplanetary missions.

Here it is high above the Earth, firing rockets:

This is from the space agency's statement:

NASA went on to explain that the mission included two cutting-edge technologies:

• The "Supersonic Inflatable Aerodynamic Decelerator (SIAD)," which is "a large, doughnut-shaped air brake that deployed during the flight, helping slow the vehicle from 3.8 to 2 times the speed of sound"
• The "Supersonic Disksail Parachute," which is the largest supersonic parachute ever flown. It has more than double the area of the parachute which was used for the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) mission that carried the Curiosity rover to the surface of Mars."

Here the SIAD in action. It's essentially a big air brake intended to slow down a landing spacecraft:

And here's the parachute being deployed:

Watch the entire YouTube video below: