payloads

Space & Cosmos

A new Mars landing approach: How to land large payloads on Mars

Credit: CC0 Public Domain Back in 2007, I spoke with Rob Manning, a distinguished engineer at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Then he said something shocking to me. Despite successfully leading entry, descent and landing (EDL) teams on three Mars rover missions, he said the prospect of landing a manned mission on Mars may be impossible. But after nearly 20 years…