Forgotten Soviet Moon Rover Beams Light Back to Earth

Re:Forgotten Soviet Moon Rover Beams Light Back to Earth by Typhon on Friday May 27, 2011 @10:45AM (#2591614)

The Luna 9 probe, which achieved the first-ever soft-landing on the moon, used air bags.

http://www.astronautix.com/craft/lunae6.htm

Use of such is not incompatible with the use of retrorockets.

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Re:Forgotten Soviet Moon Rover Beams Light Back to Earth by Arjuna on Friday May 27, 2011 @11:29AM (#2591780)

Thank 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

Step 12: Airbags inflate Step 13: Retrorockets fire

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