Mars in a Minute: How Hard Is It to Land Curiosity on Mars?
June 7, 2012
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Curiosity's dramatic landing on Mars is the most difficult and nail-biting part of the whole mission. This 60-second video from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory shows what it takes to touch down successfully.
TRANSCRIPT
On a scale from one to 10, landing on Mars is a 20! Curiosity is the biggest, most capable Mars rover yet, and needs a new type of landing to reach the ground safely. In this seven-minute trip to the surface of Mars, we have to slow down from over 13,000 miles an hour down to zero. Hundreds of things have to go just right. Curiosity must:
- hit the atmosphere at just the right angle
- endure extreme heat from friction as it descends through the atmosphere
- open its parachute at just the right time
- use radar to know exactly how high it is
- free itself from the parachute
- perfectly fire eight rocket engines to slow final descent
- drop down, dangling on four cables
- lock its wheels in place just before landing
- and cut the cables right at the moment of touchdown.
And, even if we do everything right, Mars can always surprise us. It's a big challenge, but a big opportunity to help unlock the mysteries of Mars.