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  • Insane work of art! NASA Rules!

  • That video doesn't show half of it. There are many, many important details that drove the design and requirements that made the design exactly how it ended up being. The Mars Science Laboratory is the largest ever object sent for an atmospheric entry to Mars and if it had been possible to plan for a simpler way, it would have been done that way.

    Here is the first in a series of posts that describes the Entry, Descent, and Landing in great detail:

    How Curiosity Will Land on Mars, Part 1: Entry

    Here's a size comparison:

    Mars%20Aeroshell%20and%20Entry%20Trajectory%20Comparison2.jpg

  • Distributor

    anyhow our galaxy will collide with Andromeda in a couple billion of years... we will not survive forever! 

  • Hey we got more than our monies worth out of Spirit and Opportunity  they only had a 90 day warranty and lasted 5 years + . Worth every penny IMHO cause one we have screwed this planet it is the next closest place we could possibly terra form and go to survive as a species (if we are really worth it and i am not so sure we are )  

  • the worlds most expensive yard dart

  • Distributor

    They need to have a better system for humans... even if this works (and I hope it will)  will you sit in a craft that needs to do all this to land?  I get it that they are aiming for smooth touchdown but really... would we clear that design for human use?  maybe "glide" on entry for longer time with a better angle of approach would help to slow down?  I am sure they taught of it all... Why not doing the rocket boost thing even if there is a lot of dust, just cover the rover with a protective dome or enclosure that you "just" need to open after the dust has settle... 

  • @arashi

    mars don't like the Russiansit kind of kills anything they send it's way, their far better with venus.

  • also it's more than the bounce approach not being precise enough this rover is three times the size of the last two. This extra size and weight could meant a more complex bag system they weren't sure could even dampen shock enough to keep the rover from braking on impact.

  • Over engineered, no. It's called redundancy and robustness. Notice the back up decent motors that hopefully won,t be used, but hey it takes a lot of time and money to get ~ 3500 lbs to the surface of Mars. Talk about shipping charges! Many times the cost of the rover. And hey its a rocket powered quad - a redundant quadrarocket ?

  • Maybe we should outsource Mars robot transport to the Russians too.

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