Simulation of the Mars Science Laboratory Sky Crane

An anonymous reader points us to Gizmodo for a fascinating video of NASA's Sky Crane. "When I read that the UFO-looking Mars Science Laboratory's aeroshell would use a floating crane — called Sky Crane by NASA — to softly land the rover on Mars, I couldn't believe it. Now, watching this hyper-realistic NASA simulation, I still can't believe how the whole thing works. I don't know about you, but the whole operation mesmerizes me to no end."

Comments

Re:This is needlessly complicated and HERE is why:

[the_other_chewey]

Even in their most recent plan for this Mars descent, their first mode of descent is to drop the module like a stone, using elaborate and expensive heat shielding to protect the even-more-expensive gear. But maybe -- just maybe -- they could take a lesson from Spaceship One and just take their time getting this thing down to the ground.

Sorry - but you have no clue. Mars' atmosphere at the surface has about 1% of the Earth's density, making something like aerodynamic flying impossible.
There simply isn't any other way than "dropping like a stone" - even on their parachutes, the rovers did exactly that. Those parachutes were supersonic, and their
main purpose was trajectory stabilization (although they did of course contribute to the braking).

Go read this article already linked above for a well written explanation about why
landing on Mars is actually very hard and cannot in any way be compared to landing on Earth.