"Hence the inflatable rings, known as the Hypersonic Inflatable Aerodynamic Decelerator, which would be filled with nitrogen and covered with a thermal blanket. Once deployed for landing, the rings would sit atop the spacecraft, somewhat resembling a giant mushroom."
From the Movie 2010 (which was released in 1984), the Russian ship "Leonov" deploys a "mushroom shaped" inflatable shroud at the forward end of the spacecraft, which looked like this:
(I could not find a still frame from the movie where the ship was not engulfed in fire, like the one I posted before).
So, my point was that the movie used a technique that effectively identical to the one described in the article, and as others have pointed out with additional examples, it is hardly a new idea.