Mars Airbag

Next to the Spaceport Alpha, there are several NASA SIMs. This is an air bag that was used for touchdown of Mars Pathfinder in 1997.




Sojourner Rover, a thinking robot equipped with sophisticated laser eyes and automated programming reacted to unplanned events on the surface of Mars. I have seen the picture but did not think this was so small, 65cm length and 48cm width. That is why this survived a free fall in the bouncing airbag.




The airbags can be ejected by touching a switch on the observation deck at the top of a hill, so I pounded it to generate a lot of them. It is joy to see them popping out and bouncing down the hill.




There are tornados on Mars. It is a bit frightening to see three big ones coming. Visibility was reduced to almost zero but I got no damage. It would be okay for the rover since the air is thin and the wind power is weak?