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NASA's riskiest Mars mission yet

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    Rover set to land on surface and embark on ambitious exploration

  • Duration 3:23
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This is NASA's most ambitious and risky Mars machine yet the mobile rover named curiosity.

Is set to -- on the red planet late on Sunday night.

The landing itself will be so tricky it's been described as seven minutes of terror that's because the rover.

Goes from thirteen thousand miles an hour to a complete stop.

Not easy -- -- editor in chief Discover Magazine she's.

Good morning to you on good morning and ethnic purity Clinton -- good times good times that if a if there ever epic.

NASA's most ambitious and expensive Mars mission yet one -- it's.

Well we've never built anything this -- this complicated set it to another planet it it's basically.

It's that it's a chemist a geologist and explorer.

All rolled into one in robotic form and and that is sending a signal between earth and Mars takes about fourteen minutes each way so this thing has to think for itself.

It has to be able to drive by itself -- has to explore by itself has to serve.

-- its own targets its -- into the -- -- bit but you know if you're about to go off a cliff -- run into Iraq and it to wait.

28 minutes round trip for -- they tell you not to do it.

Forget it doesn't have to be on -- so the whole slow.

The processes -- to get the parachute out I assume right to crack the atmosphere and land safely and softly in the -- -- exploding.

But there is a new twist on this mission because we've seen that technique used before to two -- degrees.

But they want to lower the rover to the bottom of a -- -- using cables.

It sounds -- -- -- -- it sounds kind of crazy so the problem is as of -- the very thin atmosphere it's just enough air to make -- difficult but not enough air to really slow you down to you can't just use a parachute.

So first.

There's a heat shield let's -- the kind of blast in the atmosphere then it -- a parachute.

It gets close to the ground.

Then -- it just.

Blended with rockets -- a -- -- a cloud of dust that the could damage thing.

The spacecraft so it gets close to the ground and then like Tom Cruise in the first mission possible it's rough stuff on -- And and that they the rocket that was lowering it flies off in crashes and it in the right after lowers the refs are incredibly to the ground but this is expensive.

I mean 2.5 billion dollars.

-- -- in your view is this a Smart mission.

Well tell -- the it.

It's it's a substantial price tag.

The other two the two and a half billion dollar price tag is a little bit misleading that's over the entire duration mission that's over ten years so presumably would normally think about things -- statement and the question is does that work pay off in this what are we going to yet from curiosity.

Right so what I was saying before but you know all all these all these autonomous technologies.

So another two ways to look at it one is you know just as it is an engineering experiment that there that.

Almost any kind of exploring you want to do in space whether it's Mars -- -- some place else.

You need all these kinds of technologies and these are technologies have -- back on earth so you know.

Thomas navigation is gives you crash avoidance in cars radiation hardened computers gives you can -- the time.

Yet if you think but -- think you know I -- backyard it government should do things the private industry cannot do.

You know like I totally by the idea that there's -- -- don't don't don't let them put money into it and -- it into solar power where industry started doing it.

Believe me industries not doing any of these that's electric curiosity and we'll see how it does thank you sort of Koreatown.

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