http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2019/11/european-mars-rover-race-against-time-fix-parachutes > Europe's 35-meter parachute in a 2018 test in Sweden. It will be the largest ever on Mars. > Getting a probe safely to the surface of Mars is not easy: Numerous landing attempts have ended in a crash. Sufficiently slowing a lander in the thin air requires plenty of sophisticated kit, including designer heat shields, powerful retrorockets, and, sometimes, giant airbags. But the European-Russian Exo-Mars mission is struggling with a piece of 18th century technology: parachutes.