14 DAY TRIAL // The Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) rover Curiosity is currently on track for an August 5 landing on the surface of Mars, on the slopes of Mount Sharp inside the Gale Crater. Mission controllers have just released a video showing what the spacecraft must do in order to land successfully.
Since Curiosity is the largest robot ever to be deployed on Mars – it is about the size of a Mini Cooper and weighs close to a ton – it requires a new delivery system, one that is different from the airbags NASA used on the Mars Exploration Rover (MER) Spirit and Opportunity.
The Sky Crane was the selected system, and this short clip features a Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) expert explaining how it works. In fact, the clip covers all of the 7 minutes that will keep the control team on edge two months from now.
MSL has the steepest angle of atmospheric entry of all Mars-bound missions. In fact, numerous technologies the mission uses are completely new, which is what is causing so much anxiety over at the JPL.