Testing the Shields of NASA's Mars Mission: Defending Against the Unknown

Set far away from residents and surrounded by dunes, the Remote Hypervelocity Test Laboratory at NASA’s White Sands Test Facility in Las Cruces, New Mexico, has supported every human spaceflight program from the Space Shuttle to Artemis. A team designing shields to protect NASA's Mars Earth Entry System from micrometeorites and space debris traveled to this facility to safely recreate dangerous impacts, and to test the team’s shields and computer models.