A TYPICAL SPACECRAFT, when it arrives someplace in our solar system, comes in hot. Screaming through the void at thousands of miles per hour, an orbiter or lander begins slowing down after rocket thrusters fire, parachutes and sky-cranes unfurl, and landing legs and airbags deploy. Despite meticulous planning, there is little elegance in all of this. A robotic explorer is rarely designed to hit an exact target: The best-planned missions aim for somewhere in an area the size of a small city. Space exploration generally involves a lot of large objects moving quickly and arriving loudly and messily.
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