If you haven't yet seen the video, check out what's being called the "" video that details the engineering challenges involved in getting Curiosity to Mars, including this sky crane system. NASA Planetary Science Directory James Green says this is "the most difficult entry, descent, and landing... of a planetary science rover ever attempted, anywhere" in the solar system.
How do you get from rocketing over 13,000 miles per hour in space to safely roving on the red planet?
After slowing down through the Martian atmosphere with a parachute, the spacecraft with the rover will deploy what's effectively a hovercraft with retrorockets. The hovercraft (has anyone nicknamed it Boba Fett?) will lower Curiosity down to the surface at , then whisk itself away from the rover landing site and to crash elsewhere on Mars. Curiosity will unfold itself, and begin roving on the surface of Mars to learn more about the history of Martian geology, especially the effects of water.