Design a Mars Parachute

  • By Rick Groleau
  • Posted 01.04.04
  • NOVA

Custom-made parachutes helped the Mars Exploration Rovers Spirit and Opportunity touch down safely on the Red Planet. In this interactive, learn how engineers build chutes that are strong, stable, and compact. Then design your own parachute and test it out in our virtual wind tunnel.

Launch Interactive

Engineer a parachute strong and light enough to control a rover's descent to the surface of Mars.

Credits

Images

(illustrations)
© WGBH Educational Foundation

Related Links

  • Ultimate Mars Challenge

    In its search for life beyond Earth, NASA employs a "sky crane" maneuver to land the Curiosity rover on Mars.

  • Is There Life on Mars?

    The decades-long search for life on the Red Planet heats up with the discovery of frozen water.

  • Lift and Drag

    What are lift and drag? And how do they work?

  • Anatomy of a Mars Rover

    Examine the robotic geologists Spirit and Opportunity and their suite of scientific instruments.

Close

You need the Flash Player plug-in to view this content.