Toward Improved Landing Precision on Mars

Mars landers to date have flown ballistic entry trajectories with no trajectory control after the final maneuver before entry. Improvements in landing accuracies (from approx.150 km from the target for Mars Pathfinder to approx.30-40 km for MER and Phoenix) have been driven by approach navigation improvements. MSL will fly the first guided-entry trajectory to Mars, further improving accuracy to approx.10-12 km from the target