Seven minutes of terror: NASA's Curiosity Rover to land on Mars this weekend
How do you get the largest Mars rover yet--one the size of a Mini Cooper with six wheels, a host of scientific instruments including a rock-vaporizing laser with a seven-foot range, and a plutonium power supply--from space to the surface of Mars? The last two NASA rovers to land on Mars were the size of shopping carts and used a bouncing airbag system to deliver those rovers safely. This time, with the larger Curiosity, NASA is going sci-fi: It'll use a sky crane to gently land the largest rover yet on Mars.