External Airbags

In Sandusky, Ohio NASA worked with ILC Dover, (a company specializing in "Softgoods" like space suits) to develop an external airbag system for the Mars Pathfinder. This air bag system, aided by a parachute and rocket-powered brakes, will insure safe passage to the Martian surface.

The entry, descent and landing (EDL) process begins after the atmosphere slows the ship down from a blazing 17,000 miles per hour to about 900 miles per hour. The ship first deploys a single 24-ft. diameter parachute that eventually slows the ship down to 144 miles per hour. The downward firing thrusters of the rocket braking system will eventually slow the ship down to a survivable 50-80 miles per hour. Finally the thrusters cut off and multi-layered air bags are inflated in less than half a second. The 17-ft. tall pyramid shaped air-bags will cushion the landing of the space craft and again launch the ship an additional 40 feet into the air, but will eventually land and roll to a stop.

My idea is that if we can accomplish space-age landings like those of the pathfinder, then shouldn't we be able to better equip airplanes with more efficient crash landing procedures? Air planes would not need such extreme measures in order to insure safe landings. Interconnected airbags would line the bottom portion of a weighed down air craft. Such an aircraft could safely bounce off the earth's surface and eventually secure the lives of relieved human passengers who would view the experience as a thrill ride.

Unfortunately, This idea offers no protection to the structures and perhaps civilians under the planes when their initial landing occurs.