It still blows my mind how they landed that rover on Mars.
Heat shield to use the atmosphere to aerobreak. Then it opened the largest hypersonic parachute ever to slow it down further (dropping the heat shield after it opened). Then eventually it cut off the parachute, turned on rockets, and flew sideways so that it didn't run back into the parachute. THEN, to avoid spitting up too much dust during landing, it lowered the rover on a 21 foot tether down to the surface, while hovering above it, before flying away to crash somewhere safe.[0]
It's so ridiculous you'd think it came from a movie. And it worked.
Heat shield to use the atmosphere to aerobreak. Then it opened the largest hypersonic parachute ever to slow it down further (dropping the heat shield after it opened). Then eventually it cut off the parachute, turned on rockets, and flew sideways so that it didn't run back into the parachute. THEN, to avoid spitting up too much dust during landing, it lowered the rover on a 21 foot tether down to the surface, while hovering above it, before flying away to crash somewhere safe.[0]
It's so ridiculous you'd think it came from a movie. And it worked.
[0]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Curiosity%27s_Seven_Minut...