Here’s how it works. The Perseverance Mars rover's "sky crane" descent stage made the ultimate sacrifice last week, and we now have a photo to memorialize the flying robot's heroic death.

Count on it. Top image: Descent stage of the Mars Science Laboratory vehicle, lowering the folded Curiosity rover in the sky crane maneuver. (Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech) ...

Related: Curiosity rover: The ultimate guide Oh, how Mars landings have changed.Pathfinder used giant airbags to land on the Red Planet. A decade later, @NASAJPL developed the sky crane maneuver ...

The evolution of Mars landings, from airbag deployments to the sky crane maneuver, is a testament to the pioneering spirit of space exploration. Driven by necessity and inspired by invention ...

When Curiosity's six wheels hit the red dirt inside Mars' huge Gale Crater, its "sky crane " descent stage will fly off and crash-land intentionally a safe distance away. NASA has dubbed the ...

Just landing successfully on Mars is a feat, but the Curiosity mission went several steps further on Aug. 5, 2012, touching down with a bold new technique: the sky crane maneuver. A swooping ...

Plummeting toward Mars, the rover's flight computer will ... Then comes the moment of truth for the sky crane concept. Just before the maneuver begins, four of the eight rocket engines, one ...

Aerojet Rocketdyne went a step farther, urging NASA to reduce the mass of the Mars rocket to reuse its sky crane. A Mars rover descends to the surface of the planet with the help of the sky crane ...

It will be the moment of truth for the sky crane concept. "We are at a low throttle setting for about a second after we come out of the back shell to allow ourselves to fall toward Mars and ...

NASA shared an image showing moments after 'sky crane' intentionally crashed into Mars after it safely delivered the Perseverance rover to the Red Planet. The sky crane lowered the car-sized rover ...

A similar system was used for the Curiosity rover eight years ago, but the sky-crane system has never been tested on the Earth because Mars gravity and thin air cannot be duplicated here.

When Curiosity's six wheels hit the red dirt inside Mars' huge Gale Crater, its "sky crane " descent stage will fly off and crash-land intentionally a safe distance away. NASA has dubbed the ...