You hit the thin atmosphere at 13,200 miles an hour -- 3-point-7 miles per second -- a real need to slow down, fast: enter friction and deployed heat shield, then 'chute, slowing from 900 miles an hour to 180 in just two minutes, then sky crane, to surface.
Cross your fingers, and hope a long list of mission-critical events, all closely timed and exactingly choreographed, happen precisely on cue. No pressure: We're just trying out a trunkful of new landing operations, is all -- Talk about a mission with lots of precisely-moving parts!
It was enough to make a master Swiss watchmaker jumpy. It all came off like clockwork, and without a hitch, as you know.
Mars Science Laboratory, Curiosity, safely landed, a whole ton. In feet: nearly 10 long -- not counting the arm -- 9 wide, 7 tall. About the size of a small SUV. Its prime mission will last one Martian year, or 23 Earth months.
The JPL center, of course, erupted into thanksgiving -- fitting, given that Curiosity took wing two days after Thanksgiving Day, last year, and is just now getting there.
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