Mars: One Way

[Lamplighter]

Tonight is the night when, just out of curiosity, NASA gambles $2.5 billion
on a Look-Mom-No-Hands, one-time only, multi-stage descent to Mars.

CNET
by Dara Kerr
August 3, 2012

How NASA tests an against-all-odds Mars rover landing

The space agency has dubbed Curiosity's imminent landing "seven minutes of terror."
And that's even after months of excruciating, exacting preparation.
It's not every day that you land a spacecraft on Mars, even if you're NASA.
And in the case of the Curiosity rover, hurtling toward a Mars landing
as Sunday night turns into Monday morning,
the space agency is tempting fate with a novel approach that involves
a big parachute, a specially designed winch, and some very high hopes.

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