I hate to be pessimistic, but I give the Mars Curiosity Lander only about a 30% chance
of landing success, i.e., 3-1 odds against it landing successfully. Oh, I know
that everything has been checked and double-checked, but as the video notes, there
is zero margin for error. Everything -- every component, every sequence, every
element - has to work perfectly. Without any human control or intervention (of
course the events in the sequence happen so fast that intervention would probably
screw things up worse). I know the scientific payoff is big, but this is a
tremendous amount of risk, and the downside is that the public will believe
less in the capabilities of fully robotic exploration of the Solar System if
Curiosity doesn't land safely and operate as designed.
7 Minutes of Terror - the Video
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