Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Lockheed Martin
The saucer-like Mars Science Laboratory, which landed the Curiosity rover on MARS, featured the largest heat shield (pictured here)—at 14 feet 9 inches in diameter—to enter a planet’s atmosphere. NASA is now engaging in R&D for even larger heat shields made of flexible, foldable material that can open up like an umbrella to protect spacecraft during atmospheric entry.