Space/Science — HabitableZone

Space/Science » in reply to You can't really compare the Viking missions with current ones

Airbags and landing sites
Nick Hoffman — (archived)

you said:
"Another innovation is the use of the airbag technique for landing. This is a pretty robust technique that reduces the required propellant needed for landing and also opens up a lot more potential landing sites. The Viking landing sites were chosen largely for safety rather than scientific interest."

In Fact, the MER rovers would NOT have been allowed to land at Viking 1 or Pathfinder location due to the number of large rocks present, and may even have been excluded from Viking 2 site.

Due to the larger weight of MER vs Pathfinder, the airbags are more stressed and more critical, and engineering safety has been more rigorously imposed. Matt Golombek's first statement in any presentation regarding landing sites is along the lines of "If you don't land safely, you don't get ANY science return".

So the Meridiani and Gusev sites will be flatter and less rock-strewn than anything we've seen to date on Mars.

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