A Curious Footprint

Lasers!  Credit: JPL/Caltech

In less than two days, NASA's Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) / Curiosity rover will begin its harrowing descent to the Martian surface.  If everything goes according to the kind-of-crazy-what-the-heck-is-a-sky-crane plan, this process will be referred to as "landing" (otherwise, more crashy/explodey gerunds will no doubt be used).

The MSL mission is run through NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory where, by coincidence, I happen to be at the moment.  Now, I'm not working on this project, so I don't have a lot to add that isn't available elsewhere.  BUT I do feel an authority-by-proximity kind of fallacy kicking in, so how about a post why not?