Everybody just watch this. It's Tom Rivellini, one of the lead mechanical designers of the landing mechanism, explaining how it works and how it evolved and wha

Everybody just watch this. It's Tom Rivellini, one of the lead mechanical designers of the landing mechanism, explaining how it works and how it evolved and what was considered and what was rejected. It's not a pithy over-produced 4 minute video, it's the real stuff for the technically interested. It answers all your questions. http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/events/lectures_archive.cfm?year=2009&month=8 http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/events/lectures_archive.cfm?year=200... > I haven't heard the reason's why some of the more conventional mechanisms weren't used. What's a conventional mechanism when you're landing on another planet?