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Reminds of the "Seven Minutes of Terror" video that NASA put out ahead of the Curiosity landing explaining how they intended to make it safely to the surface.
by nicholasjon 10y ago
Reminds of the "Seven Minutes of Terror" video that NASA put out ahead of the Curiosity landing explaining how they intended to make it safely to the surface.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ki_Af_o9Q9s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ki_Af_o9Q9s
(Note: I get goosebumps every time I watch this, absolutely amazing problem solving.)
- Ma8ee 10y agoI'm still amazed that it succeeded. I was prepared to bet quite a bit of money that at least one of the many quite complicated stages of the landing would fail. I'm happy I was wrong.
- pmoriarty 10y agoTo me, the air bags[1] used to land the Spirit and Opportunity rovers seemed like a saner way to go than trying to deposit them gently directly on to the surface using a sky crane. The reported reason the sky crane was used for Curiosity is that it was too heavy for the air bag approach. [1] - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XRCIzZHpFtY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XRCIzZHpFtY
- danbruc 10y agoIt's 185 kg vs 899 kg. I am already a bit surprised that it worked to land Spirit and Opportunity, but the lower gravity probably helps.
- Sharlin 10y agoBut the Spirit and Opportunity EDL also involved retrorockets in addition to a heatshield, a drogue chute, a parachute and the airbags - it's just that the retrorocket part didn't have to be as precise as with Curiosity.
- Coincoin 10y agoI actually laughed the first time I saw it because it looked so much like a Goldberg machine... But it cost 500M$... And they only got one try.