Team members at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory share the challenges of the Curiosity Mars rover’s final minutes to landing on the surface of Mars.
Neat stuff! I’m still amazed that of all the possible methods of landing large rovers on Mars, “heatshield + parachute + skycrane” turned out to be the least crazy option.
The smaller rovers that landed inside an inflated balloon was also crazy, but proved to be effective… I wonder what future (larger) rovers will employ for a landing system :)
smaller rovers that landed inside an inflated balloon
Didn’t they develop a system to tip the tetrahedron upright, which ultimately wasn’t used, since they literally got a lucky roll of the (D4) die?
I wonder what future (larger) rovers will employ for a landing system
Starship would be an interesting (and large!) landing system. Use the entire upper stage of the rocket for heatshield and aerobraking, then transition to a propulsive landing. If the technique works, you could probably deliver several bus-sized rovers at once.
I read somewhere that the geometry of the capsule was designed in such a way that it was guaranteed to result in the rover being upright after bouncing. I have now idea how they guaranteed that or if they could have righted it if it was not upright :)