[DuskStar]

Curiosity used aerobraking, parachutes AND a skycrane to land. There's a great video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ki_Af_o9Q9s

Previous solutions weren't used because they were less crazy, but because they were more mass efficient for "small" payload sizes.

[branchan]

I think we have been desensitized by all these SpaceX rocket landings. Propulsive landing is not as easy as it seems.