My Pick of Pic's December 4, 2003 Journey to Mars - Touchdown What a landing! The airbags that surround the rover are designed to protect it at the point of contact. It is a multi-layered fabric / air blader system that has been test in both the lab and field drop tests. Need less to say, the rover is a delicate peice of scientific equipment with a very large price tag and NASA would like to see it perform its mission. So do we. Let us cross our fingers and watch on Jan. 4th to see what happens. Previous Images in the Journey to Mars Series Blastoff Third Stage Engine Ignition Mars Atmospheric Entry Terminal Desent Mars Exploration Rover Mars Web @ JPL