Why aren’t they using previous landing techniques which have been proven to work instead of this? I’ll admit that although it’s very Rube Goldberg, it’s also pretty freakin’ cool.
My guess is it’s maybe because of the size of the rover relative to the delivery craft. To land a craft in a traditional way and then roll out the rover would need a much bigger craft. And the rover is probably too big to land the way Sojourner landed with the help of airbags.
-Tor
The dude from EDL was carrying a lot of stubble. Once upon a time EDL had a prohibition on beards. They wanted me to shave mine off if I was going to work for them. But I didn’t. Dude was sailing close to the wind, I thought…
IN any event I hope the landing is successful and can’t wait to see what the rover discovers.
I do, too. But I’m just superstitious enough to worry that they’re making such a public spectacle of this landing, with the Science Channel hyping the live coverage, The Times Square jumbotron, etc. If anything goes wrong it will be a real blow to the already-battered national psyche.
seems out of character
kinda wonder what the game is
At a guess, Nasa, concerned that its budget might be cut in these straitened times, is making sure it is in the public eye and mind. Even if this project fails, they can use the argument “we didn’t have enough resources”.
Here’s a very nice article about why NASA chose this landing method. In a nutshell: Curiosity is much bigger and heavier than previous rover payloads.
http://www.cleveland.com/science/index.ssf/2012/07/wind_tunnel_testing_at_clevela.html
In the above page, there is a very cool video showing some “area oscillations” observed during wind tunnel testing of the parachute. (yikes !)
I’ll certainly be watching !
The relatively large size of the Curiosity rover cannot be fully appreciated from the video alone. In viewing the video, I think people tend to see it as something the size of the original Sojourner rover. As you can see in the image below, the Curiosity rover is the size of a small car and not a radio-controlled “toy” (I think it’s safe to say that even the original Sojourner rover is larger than most people envision [it’s at least knee-height].)
Oh heck … If those two guys are standing there on Mars already, how come we’re sending probes? Hey there, Werner von Braunnose, enough posing with your toys. How about you get your pretty white lab coat dirty and go collect us some rocks. Sheesh, no wonder NASA’s in trouble.
mock Mars, my man 
Who, me? I would never mock Mars. The god of war is not to be trifled with. Especially not when he has a history of eating 60% of all landers for lunch.
And yes, I’ll probably be glued to the media Sunday night with fingers and toes crossed. 
why’d they bring all those tiles?
Somebody’s gotta add a homey touch to the place.
I’m cool with tiles. Always did like terra-cotta, and of course it’s a subtle punch-up that doesn’t clash with the landscape. If anybody shows up with a chintz sofa and a fishnet-clad leg lamp, though, I’m voting to shut NASA down!