sky crane maneuver
E394686
The sky crane maneuver is a powered descent and landing technique that lowers a rover on cables from a hovering spacecraft to gently place it on the surface of Mars.
All labels observed (3)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Entry Descent and Landing sky crane system | 1 |
| Sky crane descent stage | 1 |
| sky crane maneuver canonical | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T3875783 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: sky crane maneuver Context triple: [Mars Science Laboratory, usesEntryDescentLandingTechnique, sky crane maneuver]
-
A.
Ingenuity helicopter
The Ingenuity helicopter is a small experimental rotorcraft that became the first aircraft to achieve powered, controlled flight on another planet, operating on Mars as a technology demonstrator for future aerial exploration.
-
B.
ChemCam
ChemCam is a laser-based remote sensing instrument on NASA's Curiosity Mars rover used to analyze the chemical composition of Martian rocks and soil.
-
C.
Perseverance rover
Perseverance rover is NASA's Mars rover designed to search for signs of ancient life, collect rock and soil samples, and test new technologies for future human exploration of the Red Planet.
-
D.
InSight Mars lander
The InSight Mars lander was a NASA robotic mission designed to study the interior structure and seismic activity of Mars to better understand the formation and evolution of rocky planets.
-
E.
intermediate waypoint on Curiosity ascent of Mount Sharp
Rubin Ridge is a geologic feature on Mars explored by NASA’s Curiosity rover as it climbed Mount Sharp, notable for its distinctive rock layers and hematite-rich composition.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: sky crane maneuver Target entity description: The sky crane maneuver is a powered descent and landing technique that lowers a rover on cables from a hovering spacecraft to gently place it on the surface of Mars.
-
A.
Ingenuity helicopter
The Ingenuity helicopter is a small experimental rotorcraft that became the first aircraft to achieve powered, controlled flight on another planet, operating on Mars as a technology demonstrator for future aerial exploration.
-
B.
ChemCam
ChemCam is a laser-based remote sensing instrument on NASA's Curiosity Mars rover used to analyze the chemical composition of Martian rocks and soil.
-
C.
Perseverance rover
Perseverance rover is NASA's Mars rover designed to search for signs of ancient life, collect rock and soil samples, and test new technologies for future human exploration of the Red Planet.
-
D.
InSight Mars lander
The InSight Mars lander was a NASA robotic mission designed to study the interior structure and seismic activity of Mars to better understand the formation and evolution of rocky planets.
-
E.
intermediate waypoint on Curiosity ascent of Mount Sharp
Rubin Ridge is a geologic feature on Mars explored by NASA’s Curiosity rover as it climbed Mount Sharp, notable for its distinctive rock layers and hematite-rich composition.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (48)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
planetary landing technique
ⓘ
powered descent technique ⓘ |
| advantage |
allows larger rover designs
ⓘ
keeps descent engines away from rover ⓘ minimizes touchdown velocity ⓘ |
| altitudeAboveSurfaceAtHover | about 20 meters ⓘ |
| appliesTo |
Curiosity rover landing
ⓘ
Mars 2020 ⓘ
surface form:
Mars 2020 mission
Mars Science Laboratory ⓘ
surface form:
Mars Science Laboratory mission
Perseverance rover ⓘ
surface form:
Perseverance rover landing
|
| controlledBy | onboard guidance navigation and control system ⓘ |
| designedTo |
avoid dust contamination of rover
ⓘ
enable precise landing ⓘ land rovers too heavy for airbag systems ⓘ reduce landing impact forces ⓘ |
| developedFor | Mars Science Laboratory ⓘ |
| domain | aerospace engineering ⓘ |
| firstOperationalUseDate | 2012-08-06 ⓘ |
| firstUsedOn | Curiosity rover ⓘ |
| hasComponent |
bridle cables
ⓘ
descent stage ⓘ rocket thrusters ⓘ umbilical cable ⓘ |
| hasStep |
cutting cables at touchdown
ⓘ
flyaway of descent stage ⓘ hovering above surface ⓘ lowering rover on cables ⓘ powered braking ⓘ |
| landingBody |
Curiosity
ⓘ
Perseverance ⓘ |
| operatedBy | Jet Propulsion Laboratory ⓘ |
| operatesIn | thin Martian atmosphere ⓘ |
| partOf |
Mars Science Laboratory entry, descent, and landing modeling
ⓘ
surface form:
Entry Descent and Landing sequence
|
| performedAfter | parachute descent phase ⓘ |
| performedBefore | touchdown on Martian surface ⓘ |
| requires |
inertial measurement data
ⓘ
radar-based altitude measurements ⓘ throttleable rocket engines ⓘ |
| risk |
engine plume interaction with surface
ⓘ
entanglement of cables ⓘ |
| secondOperationalUseDate | 2021-02-18 ⓘ |
| testedBy |
Earth-based drop tests
ⓘ
flight simulations ⓘ |
| usedAgainOn | Perseverance rover ⓘ |
| usedBy | NASA ⓘ |
| usedFor |
landing rovers on Mars
ⓘ
soft landing of heavy payloads ⓘ |
| usedOnPlanet | Mars ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: sky crane maneuver Description of subject: The sky crane maneuver is a powered descent and landing technique that lowers a rover on cables from a hovering spacecraft to gently place it on the surface of Mars.
Referenced by (3)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
this entity surface form:
Sky crane descent stage