Room to Explore?
On 6 August 2012, while much of the world was sleeping, the global scientific community watched a handful of scientists make history when the Mars Science Laboratory successfully landed on Mars. Engineers at Pasadena, California's Jet Propulsion Laboratory had previously landed rovers on Mars, but none came close to matching the Curiosity rover's 1,982 pound mass. The earlier landing processes were rendered obsolete, and an entirely new "SkyCrane" drop had to be developed and properly executed in order to land what is nearly the size of a Mini Cooper on...