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Landing a large mass on Mars is particularly challenging as the atmosphere is too thin for parachutes and aerobraking alone to be effective while remaining thick enough to create stability problems when decelerating with rockets.Although some previous missions have used airbags to cushion the shock of landing, Curiosity rover is too heavy for this to be an option. Instead, Curiosity set down on the Martian surface using a new high-precision entry, descent, and landing (EDL) system which placed it within a 20 by 7 km (12 by 4.3 mi) landing ellipse, in contrast to the 150 by 20 km (93 by 12 mi) landing ellipse of the landing systems used by the Mars Exploration Rovers. The landing sequence alone requires six vehicle configurations, 76 pyrotechnic devices, the largest supersonic parachute ever built, and more than 500,000 lines of code, in a final sequence that was dubbed "seven minutes of terror" by NASA. The spacecraft employed several systems in a precise order, with the entry, descent and landing sequence broken down into four parts.

Curiosity Landing Video

The nylon bridle will break free and the mother-ship will speed away to a safe distance where it will eventually run out of fuel and fall to the surface. Meanwhile, Curiosity will hopefully have landed wheels down with no obstruction, ready to roam and make some extraordinary scientific discoveries.

Launching of Curiosity

MSL was launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Space Launch Complex 41 on November 26, 2011, at 10:02:00.0 EST (15:02:00.0 UTC) via the Atlas V 541 provided by United Launch Alliance. This two stage rocket includes a 3.8 m (12 ft) Common Core Booster (CCB) powered by a single RD-180 engine, four solid rocket boosters (SRB), and one Centaur III with a 5.4 m (18 ft) diameter payload fairing. The NASA Launch Services Program coordinated the launch via the NASA Launch Services (NLS) I Contract. This vehicle is capable of launching up to 7,982 kg (17,600 lb) to geostationary transfer orbit. The Atlas V has also been used to launch the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and the New Horizons probe. The first and second stage along with the solid rocket motors were stacked on October 9, 2011, near the launch pad. The fairing containing MSL was transported to the launch pad on November 3, 2011.

Curiosity has been careering through space for almost one year since its launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, in Florida, at 10.02am, November 26 last year. Since then, the spacecraft housing Curiosity – the Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft (MSL) – has had a reasonably problem-free journey travelling the 127 million miles from Earth to Mars.
Breaking this down specifically, there have been 254 "cruise days" in the journey and 45 "approach days" when the probe was preparing for entry.


 IMAGE COURTESY OF NASA JPL

Here she is on the launch pad, taking off for her mission. The launch vehicle was a two-stage Atlas rocket.