Mars rover landing explained

"Curiosity" is a car-sized robotic rover developed by NASA to explore Mars. It was launched on 26 November 2011, and safely landed on 6 August 2012. Its successful landing, however, was not guaranteed. There were various reasons why the landing was expected to be full of difficulties.

A video on the National Geographic website explains the difficulties of creating a safe landing on Mars for Curiosity's Rover.

Mars Rover's 7 Minutes of Terror:
http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/news/mars-curiosity-rover-vin?gc=%2Fvideo%2Ftechnology

The video (3:08) also shows computer simulations of how the landing was expected to work, and details the parts of the operation that were expected to be most difficult and why.

The narration is clear and fairly slow, and although there is background music, it is not loud enough to interfere with the narration.

The explanation and computer simulations are not only interesting for students, but also provide a good example of process description - either for writing or for presentations.