Guest Speaker: Miguel San Martin

The Challenges of Landing on Mars

This presentation will describe the challenges of landing on Mars and how those challenges were addressed in NASA missions through the years in response to ever-increasing science requirements, previous landing experiences, and changing programmatic constraints. From the Viking legged landers, through the Mars Pathfinder and the Mars Explorations Rovers’ airbag landers and, ultimately, the Curiosity and Perseverance SkyCrane landers, Mars exploration has provided fertile ground for the development of innovative landing technologies in our quest for extracting the scientific secrets hidden in the Red Planet.