On the Lookout for Martians: Tonight, Live, on NASA TV
NASA is hosting several public viewings of the Curiosity Mars Rover as it touches down on the Red Planet.
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Want to land on Mars?
Well, you can't. Not yet.
But early Monday uou can get a feel for what it might look like to land on the Red Planet when NASA broadcasts the landing of the Curiosity Mars Rover across the country.
A lot of people are holding their breath.
Curiosity has been on its way to Mars since Nov. 26, 2011, when it launched from Cape Canaveral.
It will descend into the thin Martian atmosphere, using a new landing method consisting of rocket guided entry, parachute descent, more rockets and a “sky crane,” which is as fantastic as it sounds. The shell of the rover will use its rockets to hover above the surface as the science lab is lowered down the surface by an “umbilical cord.”
There’s a lot going on here.
“On a scale of one to 10, landing on Mars is a 20,” according to the narrator in this video on NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory website. “Hundreds of things have to go just right.”
No wonder they call the descent – when the rover speeds through the planet’s thin atmosphere, slowing from 13,000 to 0 mph in a matter of seven minutes – seven minutes of terror.
The terror might be worth it. The rover's mission is to search the Martian landscape for signs of life.
If you want to watch with the rest of the world, there are scheduled viewings across the country. A NASA broadcast will begin Sunday at 11:30 p.m. Eastern Time and the rover should enter the Martian atmosphere at about 1:30 a.m. Monday.
The closest public broadcast will be in Greenbelt at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, but officials say all seats for “Mars at Midnight” are taken. Lucky attendees can watch the rover touch down and talk to scientists and engineers about the mission.
But you have several alternative options for watching history as it happens.
Below is more information on how to watch the landing live, compliments of Rob Gutro, NASA Goddard deputy news chief.
Gutro's guide for watching Curiosity touch down:
You can watch it on: NASA TV VIEWING
The televised events will also be streamed live online.
In This article
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Goddard Space Flight Center
8800 Greenbelt Rd, Greenbelt, MD (This is the visitor center.)
jnrentz1
8:19 am on Sunday, August 5, 2012
Highly interesting! I hope the landing is successful.
Frank Dwyer
1:03 pm on Sunday, August 5, 2012
Congrats to all the folks at Nasa on their upcoming achievment.Thank you for such a major accomplishment.
M
2:32 pm on Sunday, August 5, 2012
The Planetarium on Fenton Street at the Montgomery College Takoma Park campus will be showing the Curiosity landing. From their website:
"Free Public Planetarium SHOWS and Occasional Celestial Spectacle
WHEN: Sunday, 5 August 2012 at 11PM through 3AM, Monday, 6 August 2012.
Be with us to watch Curiosity land on Mars or crash! See the video 7 Minutes of Terror in 5 minutes and 8 seconds now. Be in the Planetarium watching what happens be with us if you can. It will most likely be exciting. The real thing is even better than even the video simulation. We will have to wait around 14 minutes for radio communications to travel from Mars to Earth. That's the way the universe works. Come and explore it with us with your family if you wish. Free parking in the faculty/staff lot adjacent to the planetarium at this strange time for most people. We have to do things Mars time not Earth time."
-Note that because it is so late, you can park in the faculty lots adjacent to the planetarium. Security has been alerted that visitors will be there late at night.
Some possible links of interest:
-Montgomery College Takoma Park Planetarium website:
http://www.montgomerycollege.edu/Departments/planet/
-"Seven Minutes of Terror" about how the Curiosity landing will work:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/video/index.cfm?id=1090
NASA website for Curiosity:
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/mars/main/index.html