Bongotronics

 Mars looms, a cruel environment for the Curiosity Rover.

Just enough atmosphere to slow down the Curiosity Rover spacecraft to 1,000 miles per hour, but not enough to finish the job.

Never before has mankind attempted such a risky concatenation of electromechanical devices to land on another planet.

For the Mars Rover Curiosity to survive, Jet Propulsion Engineers and Scientists are counting on electronics, pyrotechnic bolts, heat shields, cables, rocket motors, programming – everything —  to work perfectly.

Watch this film to grasp how aerospace electronics have advanced.  See the lengths to which engineers have gone to get the heavy Curiosity safely to Mars.

Even more shocking, see  the ambitious sequence of multiple  electronic and mechanical deployments engineers have planned.  

Engineers are counting on multiple electronic devices to keep their creation, the Curiosity Mars rover, from crashing onto the surface of Mars.  Will they succeed?

The film is called Seven Minutes of Terror.

Remember to watch the Curiosity landing at 10-31 PDT on August 5, 2012.

Check the Jet Propulsion Laboratory site for Curiosity Rover updates.