Mars rover Curiosity will be landing soon. Before it does, take the opportunity to get familiar with the step-by-step process of how it’s all supposed to happen.
This animation from NASA provides an excellent breakdown of the Curiosity’s insane landing plan on a second-by-second basis. You can set the animation to autoplay, or scroll back and forth through if you miss one some of important details of any given step.
The animation provides statistics for just how fast the rover will be going at any given point in its descent and really gives you a feel for how hard this whole thing is going to be to pull off. So check it out, and let’s all hope the real deal goes according to plan. [NASA via @litheon]