editor
hiraethified
The video is amazing!
Because of the spacecraft's increased size, allowing it to bounce-land onto Mars' surface with the aid of airbags -- the technology* usually used by landing rovers -- just won't do. So instead Nasa has developed a sky crane -- a flying vehicle that can lower the rover gently -- to ensure a soft landing technique as Curiosity is lowered to the surface.
The sky crane will work with parachutes to land the rover during the last part of its journey. As the video shows, once the parachute has slowed the rover's descent, the heatshield, which protects Curiosity when it enters Mars' atmosphere, falls from the underside of the craft. Next a "descent stage" will also detach and rise up from Curiosity's upper protective shell and slow the rover's descent using four steerable engines which also protect against horizontal winds. Once the rover is nearing zero velocity, the descent stage will release it using an "umbilical cord" to lower it to the ground. While Curiosity is being lowered, its front mobility system will be readied so it can rove away as soon as it lands. Once computers on the descent stage sense a succesful landing, it cuts the bridle connecting it to the rover and promptly flies off to crash-land elsewhere on the planet.
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2011-04/11/nasas-new-mars-rover