The same arguments were made about the Pathfinder landing system. It's nuts, it'll never work, it's too complex blah blah blah.

The people who put Pathfinder, Spirit and Opportunity onto the surface of Mars, the most experienced people, the most succesfull people, the best people at landing on Mars.....are the one's who are proposing, designing, testing and building Skycrane.

Skycrane would not and could not get past the drawing board if Ames were as convinced as Gary said that it was a guarenteed failure.

You have to ask - who do you believe? The EDL team hitting three for three in the past decade....or someone posting on a forum. I know it's a harsh thing to say, because Gary is clearly well versed in heatshield issues...but Skycrane is not a heatshield issue, and I'm afriad I take the words of the people who've put three vehicles on the surface of Mars as more valuable than his. They're not doing Skycrane for a laugh....failure is very very damaging....they're doing it because they think it's the best way to put MSL on the ground - and if you disagree with them, you've got to have some damned good evidence other than "oo - it looks all wobbly" which at the end of the day was all that Gary had to say against SC.

Doug