Seven minutes of terror. It sounds like a Hollywood thriller, but it describes the anxiety NASA is expecting as its car-size robotic rover tries a tricky landing on Mars late tomorrow.
Skimming the Martian atmosphere at 13,000 mph, the Curiosity rover needs to brake to a stop — in seven minutes.
It is headed for a two-year mission to study whether Mars ever had the elements for microbial life. Because of its heft, the 2,000-pound robot can’t land the way previous rovers did. They relied on air bags as a cushion.
CLICK HERE FOR A STEP-BY-STEP LOOK AT HOW CURIOSITY WILL LAND
This time, NASA is testing a new landing that involves gingerly setting the rover down the way heavy-lift helicopters lower loads at the end of a cable.
“The degree of difficulty is above a 10,” said Adam Steltzner, an engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
A communication delay means Curiosity must nail the landing by itself, following the half-million lines of computer code engineers uploaded to direct its every move.