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Yesterday, I had the pleasure of doing Flex training at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and got take a VIP tour to see the next generation Mars rover that will be going up in a few years.  I even got to sit in the Mission Manager’s chair and pretend for a minute.  I’m enough of a geek that I watched the Pheonix landing live on NASA TV, so this was a treat for me.

Here’s the cruise vehicle and heat shield that will get the rover to its destination:

And the way they’re going to land the rover is incredible:

The part with the thrusters will hover there while the rover slowly descends along a cable like a spider.

Sorry for the poor quality photos, but you get the idea