Mars Rover's "Crazy" Landing, Step by Step (Pictures)

Ten Minutes to Terror

Illustration courtesy Caltech/NASA

This should be the scene at roughly 1:20 a.m. ET Monday, when the capsule bearing the Curiosity rover (artist's conception above) is to be about ten minutes from impact with the Martian atmosphere. (See "Mission to Mars: Why Curiosity’s Landing is a Moment to Savor.")

Much is riding on the Curiosity rover, both literally and figuratively. Carrying 165 pounds (75 kilograms) of science instruments, the rover is our best shot so far at learning whether or not life ever existed, or could exist, on Mars. (Get the basics on the Curiosity, the Mars Science Laboratory rover.)

Published August 4, 2012

Breakthrough

Illustration courtesy Caltech/NASA

Upper and lower heat shields hard at work, Curiosity enters the Mars's upper atmosphere at 13,200 miles (21,200 kilometers) an hour (artist's conception). The impact creates so much friction that the craft's deceleration will be 90 percent complete before its parachute opens, some 80 miles (130 kilometers) lower in the atmosphere.

(Related: "Sky Show Sunday—Planets to Align for Mars Rover Landing.")

Published August 4, 2012

Unprecedented Parachute

Illustration courtesy Caltech/NASA

Having deployed its parachute and ditched its underside heat shield—exposing the Mars rover's undercarriage—Curiosity plummets a bit slower in a NASA illustration.

The 60-foot-wide (18-meter-wide) parachute is the largest and strongest ever sent to another world, according to NASA. It has to be: The falling rover will generate 65,000 pounds (30,000 kilograms) of drag force when the chute's lines snap taught.

If the parachute doesn't open on cue, the rover has no chance of landing intact—just one of many make-or-break moments within the seven minutes of terror.

"We now have a risk analysis that says [the landing] has a 99 percent likelihood of succeeding," NASA's Steltzner says in Mars Landing 2012. "That assumes all the parts will operate and deploy as they should.

"Given the circumstances and essential timing of all the maneuvers, we're definitely asking a lot. That's what's keeping me up at night."

Published August 4, 2012

Hovercraft

Illustration courtesy Maas Digital LLC/National Geographic Channels

Having ejected the lower heat shield and the parachute, the sky crane—with the rover in its belly—fires retro-rockets to hover 66 feet (20 meters) above the surface of Mars. Soon the hovercraft will loosen its grip on tethers holding Curiosity, allowing gravity to pull the rover to the ground.

The sky-crane maneuver, completely new with this mission, was necessary to accommodate the sheer weight of Curiosity. The "air bag"-dependent, bounce-and-roll landing maneuver used with earlier, and much smaller, Mars rovers couldn't have protected the nearly 2,000-pound (907-kilogram) Curiosity.

(See past Mars rover pictures.)

Published August 4, 2012

The Drop

Illustration courtesy Maas Digital LLC/National Geographic Channels

The sky crane lowers the car-size rover onto the Martian surface.

"We know the sky-crane maneuver looks crazy," Steltzner says in Mars Landing 2012. "It even looks crazy to us. But it's the result of careful, reasoned engineering thought, and we have been beating on it for almost a decade."

(Related: John Updike on Mars exploration in National Geographic magazine.)

Published August 4, 2012

Wheels Down

Illustration courtesy Caltech/NASA

Curiosity lands on its feet in a NASA illustration. The rover should be far more efficient at data-capturing than any of its predecessors, partly because Curiosity is much better equipped to land near its study targets inside Gale Crater.

Whereas the Mars Exploration Rovers, which landed in 2004, could hope to land within a 92-by-12-mile ellipse, Curiosity needs an ellipse of just 12 by 4 miles (20 by 7 kilometers). (Explore a time line of Mars exploration.)

Published August 4, 2012

Ready to Roll

Curiosty Mars rover wth departing descent stage (background). Illustration by Oliver Uberti and Nick Kaloterakis, National Geographic.

As the sky crane rockets toward a crash landing safely afield of Curiosity, the rover stretches its legs.

Armed with cameras, a rock-vaporizing laser, weather sensors, spectrometers, and tools for identifying minerals and organic compounds, Curiosity is to spend at least the next two years searching mainly for signs of past life on Mars.

Note: Illustration initially appeared in February 2012 issue ofNational Geographic magazine.

Published August 4, 2012

More Pictures: Five "Cursed"
Mars Missions

Illustration courtesy Caltech/NASA

Published August 4, 2012