Final crash landing 'goof'

In the goofs section, it is mentioned that the ejecting of the radiation shields to reduce the impact velocity is a scientific goof. The reason thus given is a true fact. Reducing the mass of the lander will not change its free fall velocity due to gravity. However, I believe that the intentions of the Captain (and writers) were not concerned with Newton's 2nd law or motion, but perhaps focused on his third law of motion, action and reaction. By jettisoning the radiation shields, the force of the ejection charge will translate to a reaction force that will thrust the lander upward, or in this case, greatly reduce its downward velocity. NASA actually uses this technique in landing on the surface of Mars, when the landers eject the atmospheric entry heat shields, or in booster separation of the Saturn V lifting Apollo into orbit, in which case it has the opposite effect of thrusting the Apollo forward with more velocity. In each case, it is an application of Newton's 3rd law of motion.