Curiosity's Sky Crane Maneuver

An artistic rendering of the sky crane maneuver during the descent of NASA's Curiosity rover to the Martian surface. Weighing in at over 900 kilograms (2,000 pounds), Curiosity could not use the conventional airbag system that facilitated the landing of previous Mars rovers. Instead, an innovative technology called the sky crane performed a powered descent with Curiosity suspended beneath it.