Landing Challenges Solved

Landing on Mars is notoriously difficult — roughly half of all attempted Mars landings have failed. The thin atmosphere is too weak for parachutes alone, yet thick enough to cause dangerous heating during entry. Engineers call the sequence the "seven minutes of terror": the spacecraft must execute complex maneuvers on its own, with no chance of real-time control.

Curiosity and Perseverance used an innovative sky crane, a rocket-powered platform that lowered the rover on cables, then flew off to crash at a safe distance. Future human-rated landers must handle payloads 100 times heavier.