Sky Crane Maneuver During Curiosity's Mars Descent Button

Artist's concept showing the sky crane maneuver during the descent of Curiosity rover to the Martian surface. Mars Science Laboratory will use a guided entry and a sky crane touchdown system to land the hyper-capable, massive rover. In this scene, the spacecraft's descent stage, while controlling its own rate of descent with four of its eight throttle-controllable rocket engines, has begun lowering Curiosity on a bridle. The rover is connected to the descent stage by three nylon tethers and by an umbilical providing a power and communication connection.