The rover’s predecessors, Spirit and Opportunity, bounced onto the red planet in 2004 encased in cushioning.
Packed with more science gadgets, the latest visitor is bigger and five times as heavy, so engineers needed a way to safely deliver a much larger package.
Enter the sky crane, a new approach fr NASA that – if successful – could become standard for landing big bots on other worlds. The crane’s retro rockers allow for a gentle landing, and it will stay teteherred to Curiosity until the rover’s wheels are on stable ground.
If all goes as planned, Curiosity will set down next to a thee-mile-high mountain in Gale crater with rock latyers rich in clay and sulfates, minerals known to form only in the presence of liquid water, a key ingredient for life.
Scientists hope these layers will yield a story of a planet with conditions that were – or are – hospitable to life.

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