How is this landing different from prior landings?
This spacecraft Insight is not a rover.
It’s amazingly difficult to hit the tiny window anytime.... the margins between crash-boom-destruction and bouncing off the (minimal) Martian atmosphere are extremely tiny.
Good question! Heavier ship. Much heavier. It’s entering the atmosphere at 12,000mph and all that mass has to be brought down to 5mph at touchdown. Mars’ atmosphere is only 1% as dense as earth’s, so there isn’t much there, or wouldn’t seem to be, to slow it down. But there is enough to bring it down to about 800mph, at which time a giant supersonic parachute will open. It’s just amazing what they are trying to do.