NASA landed Curiosity Rover on Mars on 6 August 2012. It has been still working with a long range of mission objectives.
During landing the Curiosity, first a heat-shield was used to slow it safely through thin Mars atmosphere, and then a parachute was used to low it further. Sky-Crane was then used to descend the Curiosity to Mars surface without blowing any dusts around.
The heat-shield and Sky-Crane are two very heavy equipments. They could be use to dig bigger holes in the Mars surface to be examined later by Curiosity.
The heat-shield has already done its double job, securing the Curiosity from intense heat and making a big fresh crater on Mars surface. Nothing special was needed in this case.
On the other hand, the Sky-Crane was a complex machinery with rockets involved. After descending the Curiosity to surface and going away to safe distance, it could be used to hit the Mars surface with a proper angle to dig a hole through the impact. The impact could be made more powerful by speeding the Sky-Crane through the remaining jet-fuel in its jets and making the impact point of the Sky Crane more like a sharper cone. This is very late to talk about the Sky Crane of Curiosity, but we still have Mars 2020 rover mission and changes can be made in that one.
The parachute can also act to collect dust particles for a long time to be examined later. More, it the Curiosity to visit it more than once after some time, to see how the parachute is changed with time. It can examine changes parachute material with time, through temperature and radiation.
Curiosity can be made to visit the impact points of the heat-shield and Sky-Crane on regular interval through its long life. As time goes by, the Curiosity speed can increase due to increased confidence about Mars surface.
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| Curiosity Hardware Locations. Photo taken from http://io9.com/5932592/see-all-the-landing-hardware-that-curiosity-scattered-on-the-surface-of-mars |
During landing the Curiosity, first a heat-shield was used to slow it safely through thin Mars atmosphere, and then a parachute was used to low it further. Sky-Crane was then used to descend the Curiosity to Mars surface without blowing any dusts around.
The heat-shield and Sky-Crane are two very heavy equipments. They could be use to dig bigger holes in the Mars surface to be examined later by Curiosity.
The heat-shield has already done its double job, securing the Curiosity from intense heat and making a big fresh crater on Mars surface. Nothing special was needed in this case.
On the other hand, the Sky-Crane was a complex machinery with rockets involved. After descending the Curiosity to surface and going away to safe distance, it could be used to hit the Mars surface with a proper angle to dig a hole through the impact. The impact could be made more powerful by speeding the Sky-Crane through the remaining jet-fuel in its jets and making the impact point of the Sky Crane more like a sharper cone. This is very late to talk about the Sky Crane of Curiosity, but we still have Mars 2020 rover mission and changes can be made in that one.
The parachute can also act to collect dust particles for a long time to be examined later. More, it the Curiosity to visit it more than once after some time, to see how the parachute is changed with time. It can examine changes parachute material with time, through temperature and radiation.
Curiosity can be made to visit the impact points of the heat-shield and Sky-Crane on regular interval through its long life. As time goes by, the Curiosity speed can increase due to increased confidence about Mars surface.
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