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They used airbags.
by Typhon 15y ago
They used airbags.
- masklinn 15y agoNope, thrusters, much like the Apollo landers.
- Arjuna 15y agoYou are probably thinking of the Mars Exploration Rover Mission (Spirit and Opportunity) landings on Mars. While airbags were deployed to protect both Spirit and Opportunity during landing, descent speed was managed by supersonic parachute and retrorockets.
- paxswill 15y agoOr even the Mars Pathfinder mission.
- Typhon 15y agoThe Luna 9 probe, which achieved the first-ever soft-landing on the moon, used air bags. http://www.astronautix.com/craft/lunae6.htm http://www.astronautix.com/craft/lunae6.htm Use of such is not incompatible with the use of retrorockets.
- Arjuna 15y agoThank you for the link regarding Luna 9; I did not know that. You originally said, "Use of such is not incompatible with the use of retrorockets. As a matter of fact, the latter are used first." Just to provide clarity, I was referring to the EDL (Entry, Descent, Landing) profile of Spirit and Opportunity. Their EDL profiles first deploy the airbags, then fire the retrorockets. http://marsrover.nasa.gov/mission/tl_entry1.html http://marsrover.nasa.gov/mission/tl_entry1.html Step 12: Airbags inflate Step 13: Retrorockets fire