Space/Science — HabitableZone

Space/Science » in reply to q = 0.5 p V squared

The most dangerous phase will be approach to landing and impact
Larry J — (archived)

The next landers, like Mars Pathfinder and MPL, aren't going to go into orbit before landing like the Vikings did. That means they have to handle whatever weather conditions that exist on Mars at the time instead of waiting for better conditions (as Viking did).

The next landers intend to use the airbag technique pioneered by Mars Pathfinder. If you have a strong wind blowing as the lander approaches the ground, then you'll have a high horizontal velocity vector in addition to the vertical vector. When you're talking about an airbag under a parachute or in freefall, it's going to be moving across the gound pretty fast in a high wind scenario. So long as they're strong enough to handle the higher impact speed, it shouldn't be too much of a problem. This would probably be a lot more difficult to handle in a powered landing like MPL.

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