it all happens faster than the time it
takes to send one radio command from
earth so every step is pre-programmed
the parachute slows us down from a
thousand meters a second to about 100
meters a second
so far it looks a lot like any other
Mars landing but now things take a
strange twist you a powered descent mode
we descend for the last two kilometers
look at the ground with the radar and
then about 20 meters from the surface
we employ our touchdown system which is
called the sky crane
we deploy the rover we are still
maintaining a constant vertical velocity
we touch down cut the rover free fly
it is a new architecture and frankly it
looks crazy it you know the line we roll
it looked scary very crazy wacky thing
and it looked like that to the folks at
NASA headquarters and so we went through
wouldn’t it be in close to two hours
there’s lots of questions as probing
they ask about the airbags that work so
well last time
but this Rover is five times heavier
air bags would have to be impossibly
huge so that’s out what about a
traditional Lander with legs with a
heavy payload it would be unstable
especially if it happened to land on the
slope
and that’s one of the reasons that we we
don’t like it
the sky crying though can drop the rover
anywhere it can drive it utilizes the
rover’s inherits terrain hugging
capability and the rover is placed in a
condition ready to row by the end of the
day the head of NASA was convinced
takes to send one radio command from
earth so every step is pre-programmed
the parachute slows us down from a
thousand meters a second to about 100
meters a second
so far it looks a lot like any other
Mars landing but now things take a
strange twist you a powered descent mode
we descend for the last two kilometers
look at the ground with the radar and
then about 20 meters from the surface
we employ our touchdown system which is
called the sky crane
we deploy the rover we are still
maintaining a constant vertical velocity
we touch down cut the rover free fly
it is a new architecture and frankly it
looks crazy it you know the line we roll
it looked scary very crazy wacky thing
and it looked like that to the folks at
NASA headquarters and so we went through
wouldn’t it be in close to two hours
there’s lots of questions as probing
they ask about the airbags that work so
well last time
but this Rover is five times heavier
air bags would have to be impossibly
huge so that’s out what about a
traditional Lander with legs with a
heavy payload it would be unstable
especially if it happened to land on the
slope
and that’s one of the reasons that we we
don’t like it
the sky crying though can drop the rover
anywhere it can drive it utilizes the
rover’s inherits terrain hugging
capability and the rover is placed in a
condition ready to row by the end of the
day the head of NASA was convinced
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