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jasonwatkinspdx
Here's an excellently produced video showing just how ambitious the design is:

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/video/index.cfm?id=1090

Goronmon
I was nearly in shock as to how complicated the landing sequence was going to be and then...sky crane.

That is one amazingly ambitious project.

karpathy
This sounded more like some movie maker pitching a scene for a sci-fi movie. Except they are actually serious.
zheng
So that is basically insane, but I do have to ask how many of those kinds of maneuvers have been tried before? I mean, they say they can't land the rover with rockets, so I assume they have used alternate methods before as well?
pohl
For comparison, here is the similar video that they put out to describe the EDL system used by Spirit & Opportunity back in 2004. For some reason it was a mere 6 minutes of terror. I'm not sure what accounts for the discrepancy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ij33yhdGn_g

rory096
Phoenix was also 7 minutes: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2ucH1PT4LQ

Maybe the retrorockets/sky crane in Phoenix/Curiosity (respectively) add a few seconds.

jasonwatkinspdx
Thanks guys. It was neat to see what parts of the design (and the video) were reused from prior projects.
pohl
Here's a pretty good presentation on the design constraints of Curiosity. He answers the 6 vs 7 question about 27 minutes in: it's the guided-descent phase that gives the extra minute.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-q38AncYm2U

maeon3
I hope the rover will dig a hole in the ground and uncover a shiny piece of metal, continue digging and find the corner of a massive spaceship.

Then we power it up and it still works.

51Cards
It's the landing sequence on this that has me spooked. Not that I doubt the engineering behind it but wow, to put something this heavy on the planet they had to come up with a fairly complex sequence as the 7 Minutes of Terror video explains. I'm sure it's been checked and rechecked but I don't think I'd want to have to go through the stress of waiting for final confirmation.

If they pull this off then my extreme kudos to the team, and I very eagerly await a new set of eyes on MARS. I couldn't get enough of what came out of every previous rover. Maybe I missed my calling. :)

joshlegs
I'm pretty stoked about the potential video, myself.
waterlesscloud
If it works they will be heroes, if it fails there will be a lot of questioning of their wisdom.

Very risky plan in a lot of senses.

Not to say it's not the right one, but man are they putting a lot on the line.

hrayr
They had a similarly remarkable landing for the Mars Exploration Rovers. I happened to be interning at JPL with the MER EDL team when these rovers landed in 2004, and the level of precision and excitement was absolutely amazing. MER had 6 minutes of terror, and they do get some data during these 6 minutes, it's just they can't do anything about it because the round trip communication delay at the time was about 20 minutes.

I remember one of the engineers comparing the precision needed for launching and landing a Rover on Mars to hitting a golf ball in California and landing a hole in one in Florida.

Here's the MER EDL. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ij33yhdGn_g

andy_herbert
Such a shame that there will be very little 'curiosity' expressed by the general public.
Pyrodogg
Darn you physics and your 14 minute tape delay, I want to tweet this live!