"Lockheed Martin has successfully performed a series of drop tests at the U.S. Army Yuma Proving Ground in Yuma, Ariz., to validate soft landing technology that can be used for astronaut crew capsules upon return to Earth. The technology makes use of an array of dual airbags that, upon ground impact, releases air from the outer bags of the system, allowing the capsule to settle softly to the ground on its inner airbags."
+ Read Press Release (Lockheed Martin)
Editor's Note: There is also a video available on the Lockheed Martin site which shows a couple of recent tests. I wonder what program they are building this under??
Posted by jburk at July 25, 2026 06:06 PM | TrackBackI would say that it would be for a Mars based mission in the future. I know some of the probes that we would like to land are pretty large.
It would have no value for Earth or lunar based landings due to the need for a Heat shield that would bake the airbags on Earth desents and for Lunar the probe would bounce on impact right back almost into orbit.
Harold, it seems that the heat shield would have to be jettisoned before the airbags could deploy. This wouldn't be too difficult but would limit the landing trajectories for a touchdown over land. Good point about the Moon though, the craft could not use a parachute to slow itself down...retro rockets are necessary.
Posted by: Anthony Kendall at July 26, 2026 11:15 AMI believe these are technology demonstration contracts that were issued back under the OSP program. LM got the Pad aborts, which I believe this is a part of. Orbital Sciences got the autonomous rendezvous, DART.
Posted by: Patrick at July 26, 2026 04:35 PMDid I not see what looked like USAF wings on the side of the demonstrator? If so, would appear to rule out the OSP funding...
Posted by: David at September 10, 2026 08:24 PMI think this COULD have application for earth-based landings. The heat shield, if it is silica based, like the STS-TPS, need only be designed to “open” in several spots, like the Shuttle wheel wells, thru which the bags would deploy. Ablative shielding is not something that would be desirable on a reusable spacecraft. In my opinion, the heat shield should be a forward development of the current tile-based system used on the STS. Doing so allows all kinds of possibilities for the underside of the craft, including retro fire, deployable bags, crew egress and landing struts. Hey, if we’re going to do this, why not do it up and make it real. Does anybody really think that in 100 years, our spacecraft will “hard” land on the ground and tip over on their sides, or splash into the ocean and float until some ship can pick them up? No. They will land at some facility designed for that purpose, probably under power, and the pilot will be in complete control of the pin-point landing. So why not go down that path now, begin the thought process, and develop the landing hardware? It will only be a start, and probably won’t resemble anything from the future, but let’s begin it, and let the future develop from it.
Posted by: Chuck Longton at March 1, 2008 09:11 AMThe answer is extremely simple: An interchangable heatshield depending on the mission.A heavy duty robust one for missions from the Moon and Mars and a lighter duty one for trips from Earth orbit.I disagree a bit on having openings or hatches on the heatshield for airbag deploment.I feel that any type of mechanism to allow that,is an accident waiting to happen.I believe that a waterlanding is the safest scenario and should be refined for the CEV.Look,if one chute fails on an air-bag touch-down..man,those men are going to hit super hard.At least with a water landing it wouldn't be as violent.The Delta Clipper that was cancelled was working on a retro rocket vertcal landing system....For manned expeditions to the Moon and Mars this is the best way to go.....
Posted by: jake at March 3, 2008 06:42 AM