Powered Flight Design and Performance Summary for the Mars Science Laboratory Mission

The powered flight segment of Mars Science Laboratory's Entry, Descent, and Landing system extends from backshell separation through landing. This segment is responsible for removing the final 0.1% of the kinetic energy dissipated during entry, descent, and landing and culminates with the successful touchdown of the rover on the surface of Mars. Powered descent overcame the many challenges that exist in the powered flight segment: extracting the powered descent vehicle from the backshell, performing a 300 m divert maneuver to avoid collision with the backshell and parachute, slowing the descent from 85 m/s to 0.75 m/s successfully lowering the rover on a 7.5 m bridle beneath the rocket-powered descent stage, and gently placing it on the surface using the sky crane maneuver. Finally, the nearly spent descent stage executed a flyaway maneuver to ensure surface impact at a safe distance from the rover. The powered flight segment's execution resulted in Mars Science Laboratory's successful touchdown on the night of 5 August 2012.