Space/Science — HabitableZone

Space/Science » in reply to If it means a brief stopover in martian parking orbit, before descending, I don't see the problem.

Skycrane will land large payloads
Jeff F — (archived)

http://www.space.com/businesstechnology/technology/mars_science_lab_040211.html

Work on MSL is underway here at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). And it is obvious from the get-go that just getting this mega-rover onto Mars takes a strong dose of imaginative engineering.

The Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) would make the first wheels-down landing on the planet. No need for airbags, nor lengthy preparations to get the mobile robot "down-and dirty" on Mars.

This Mars vehicle is lowered onto the surface via a Skycrane and ready for action, said Brian Muirhead, JPL's chief engineer for the MSL.

Muirhead admits that the Skycrane idea evokes in some people "this is crazy…you've got to be kidding" comments.

"I heard exactly those same words on the airbags," said Muirhead, who was a key leader in the Mars Pathfinder/Sojourner project - NASA's first Mars craft to use airbags. Spirit and Opportunity rovers now scuffing up martian landscape also utilized airbags to reach their respective landing zones.

"But once you think about it a little bit…the Skycrane is absolutely better than airbags," Muirhead advised.

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