From: henry@spsystems.net   
      
   In article <41873b63.0401251412.5ff75d7e@posting.google.com>,   
   Mark Rejhon  wrote:   
   >With the Opportunity Rover landing today, NASA (JPL) has successfully   
   >landed 3 spacecraft on Mars using airbag technology, that makes it a   
   >100% success rate.   
      
   Which statistically is indistinguishable from the success rate of rocket   
   landing.  (If *one event* happening differently would change the relative   
   ranking of the options, you don't have enough data for that ranking to be   
   trustworthy.)   
      
   >Do you think the floodgates will open for future Mars landers using   
   >airbag technology on more interesting locales (near mesas, volcanoes,   
   >valleys, etc)   
      
   Unlikely.  The airbag/rocket landing method (yes, there are rockets   
   involved, and a radar altimeter too) remains complex, heavy, poorly   
   controlled, and hard on the payload (MP's first bounce was 18G).  And   
   even in the days before it acquired braking rockets, the expectation   
   was a landing failure rate of perhaps 10%.   
   --   
   MOST launched 30 June; science observations running     |   Henry Spencer   
   since Oct; first surprises seen; papers pending.        | henry@spsystems.net   
      
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