Mars lander

With the Mars Science Laboratory Rover set to land next month, I found a few pictures of the Lander being configured and packed up into the space craft. The Lander, Descent stage and cruse platform attached to the entry craft, there are a lot of components that are going into this mission. Since everything has to fit into a defined shape and size, there are a lot of planning considerations.

Descent Stage

First the rover must be able to fit with the descent stage into the cruse shell. This must fit on top of a rocket so the whole thing is limited by the mount on the rocket booster. If they had a wider rocket then the entry vehicle could be larger and everything else. But it is very ingenious in how they fit the whole set of components together.

Rover and Descent Stage