An artist's illustration of the landing apparatus of the Mars Science Laboratory. Click to enlarge this image. NASA
THE GIST
Discovery News - With the successful launch of the Mars Science Laboratory on Saturday, NASA can breathe easy — for a few months anyway.
Another cliff-hanger moment will come on Aug. 6, 2012, when the 1,980-pound rover is lowered to the surface of Mars by a rocket-powered sky crane making its debut flight.
“We call it the ‘six-minutes of terror,’” said Doug McCuistion, director of NASA’s Mars Exploration Program. “It is pretty scary, but my confidence level is really high.”
PHOTOS: When Discovery News Met Mars Rover ‘Curiosity’
Entering the Martian atmosphere is not for the faint of heart. The envelope of gases surrounding the planet is thick enough to slow down a spacecraft from its interplanetary speed of about 3.5 miles per second, but too thin for safe landing by parachutes alone.
NASA previously used airbags or thruster rockets on its Mars rovers and landers to cushion the impact, but Mars Science Lab, which weighs nearly a ton, needs a beefier system. More
- *Mars Science Laboratory will use a new landing system called a sky crane to touch down on Mars on Aug. 6, 2012.
- For the final mile of its 354 million-mile journey, the rover will fly beneath a rocket-powered platform that will gently lower it on tethers to the floor of a crater.
- The goal of the two-year mission is to determine if Mars could have, or possibly still has, habitats for life.
Discovery News - With the successful launch of the Mars Science Laboratory on Saturday, NASA can breathe easy — for a few months anyway.
Another cliff-hanger moment will come on Aug. 6, 2012, when the 1,980-pound rover is lowered to the surface of Mars by a rocket-powered sky crane making its debut flight.
“We call it the ‘six-minutes of terror,’” said Doug McCuistion, director of NASA’s Mars Exploration Program. “It is pretty scary, but my confidence level is really high.”
PHOTOS: When Discovery News Met Mars Rover ‘Curiosity’
Entering the Martian atmosphere is not for the faint of heart. The envelope of gases surrounding the planet is thick enough to slow down a spacecraft from its interplanetary speed of about 3.5 miles per second, but too thin for safe landing by parachutes alone.
NASA previously used airbags or thruster rockets on its Mars rovers and landers to cushion the impact, but Mars Science Lab, which weighs nearly a ton, needs a beefier system. More
