Okay, so the Mars rover “Curiosity” is landing on Mars around midnight in the U.S. In response to the question, “Where can I watch the live landing of the Mars Rover (Curiosity)?
Well, first, there is the NASA TV station which has a schedule of events during the day today and early tomorrow after the landing:
August 5, Sunday (all times U.S. eastern time zone)
12 p.m. – NASA Television Video File – HQ (All Channels)
12:30 – 1:30 p.m. – NASA Science News Conference Mars Science Laboratory/Curiosity Rover Pre-Landing News Conference – Rover Communication overview – JPL (All Channels)
1:30 p.m. – Replay of NASA News Conference to Announce New Agreements for Next Phase of Commercial Crew Development – HQ (All Channels)
2 p.m. – Replay of ISS Update (8/3) – HQ (All Channels)
3 p.m. – NASA Science News Conference Mars Science Laboratory/Curiosity Rover Pre-Landing News Conference – Rover Communication overview – JPL (All Channels)
4-6 p.m. – Replay of NASA Social for the Mars Science Laboratory/Curiosity Rover Landing – HQ (All Channels)
6 – 7 p.m. – NASA Science News Conference – NASA Science Mission Directorate – JPL (All Channels)
11 p.m. – Mars Science Laboratory/Curiosity Rover Landing Coverage of Entry Decent and Landing (Commentary #1 Begins 11:30 p.m.) – JPL (Public and Education Channels)
11 p.m. – Mars Science Laboratory/Curiosity Rover Landing Coverage of Entry Decent and Landing (Clean Feed with Mission Audio Only) – JPL (Media Channel)August 6, Monday
NET – 2:15 a.m. – Mars Science Laboratory/Curiosity Rover Post-Landing News Conference – JPL (All Channels)
3:30 – 4:30 a.m. – Mars Science Laboratory/Curiosity Rover Landing Coverage and Commentary – Commentary #2 – (First Post-Landing Communication Session/Odyssey Downlink) – JPL (All Channels)
You can watch the main landing at the link above, or go directly to the live feed here (a high-def channel is here). The landing is scheduled for the following times:
Aug 5, 2012 10:31 p.m. Pacific
Aug 6, 2012 1:31 a.m. Eastern
Aug 6, 2012 5:31 a.m. Universal
You Brits: get up early to watch this! Now I’m not sure exactly what “watching the landing” will consist of, but surely it will involve watching the control room either celebrate or go into deep depression, and I suspect that we’ll see photos from the rover after it’s settled and deployed. What I don’t know is whether the entry vehicle will film part of the landing.
Everything is going well so far, and the “weather” on Mars (the amount of dust in the atmosphere, etc.) is good for landing.
For other material such as the press kit, the second-by-second countdown, and a list of local events (by U.S. state our country) where you can go to watch it in your area, go to the NASA/Caltech Jet Propulsion Lab webpage.
What really stirs me about this mission is that it shows what an evolved species can do when it applies brains that evolved, after all, for living on the savanna. We have the savvy not only to calculate ways to get vehicles from Earth to Mars with pinpoint accuracy (the last rover travelled 140 million kilometers and landed within 200 meters of its target), but also to fabricate such vehicles by wresting elements from the surface and atmosphere of Earth. Yes, a species of primate did that. It’s fantastic.
h/t: Rixaeton, George
“Curiosity lands tonight”
But in how many pieces, that’s the question. 🙂
Very true very true
Landing in one piece is easy. It’s what happens in the fraction of a second after that that matters.
Phil Plait (Bad Astronomy) will be hosting (with others) a live Google+ video Hangout beginning at 11:00pm EDT. Phil says, “You don’t need to join G+, though it helps.”
https://plus.google.com/u/0/events/c7c2fbd2gil25fjimln1jnr1134/110701307803962595019
“The heat shield glows like the sun … 1600 degrees …”
It must be a gub’mint conspiracy – sources outside NASA say the sun’s a hell of a lot hotter than that. Maybe 1.5 hells hotter.
This is fantastic. Thanks for the reminder.
On the live stream discussion from NASA today they were saying that the first photographic evidence would come from the orbiting satellite, the name of which I’ve forgotten. There won’t be any shots from the descent. Fingers crossed!
For a model of what the view is from Curiosity now, click here
Mars no longer looks like a little red dot 🙂
I thought this site operated on Chicago time. I am sure everyone can do the math, but the landing is 12:30 Central daylight time. I’m working the afternoon shift tomorrow and will not sleep until we get a message from this probe.
As for Mountain time, I suppose the whole world is on tape delay and the landing will happen whenever the local TV stations decide it does.
the last rover travelled 140 million kilometers and landed within 200 meters of its target)
And some people can’t put a Volkswagon in a garage.
Sure, but they get the Volkswagen closer than 200m from the intended target.
Mathew Oobb @5
On the live stream discussion from NASA today they were saying that the first photographic evidence would come from the orbiting satellite, the name of which I’ve forgotten.
That is not quite complete. NASA will be trying to use one of its Mars orbiters, Odyssey, as a relay for Curiosity/MSL shortly after landing. Some of the information Odyssey will get from Curiosity is one or two low resolution images from one of the rear hazard avoidance cameras at the rear of Curiosity.
Whether that works or not depends on two things. That NASA/JPL can point Odyssey at the landing site, not 100% certain due to a failure on Odyssey a few weeks ago, and that Odyssey will still be above Curiosity’s horizon when Curiosity transmits.
Odyssey does another pass into Curiosity’s horizon about two hours later. There are also two other satellites orbiting Mars which
will also be listening for Curiosity. These are NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and the European Express orbiter. These two will not relay any recorded signals until some time latter.
George
Descent. Not decent. Sorry, but it hurts.
Tell ’em Phil, on that Batphone thing you have.
Except, of course, you’re Jerry, not Phil
Jerry, says:
What I don’t know is whether the entry vehicle will film part of the landing.
Yes it will, assuming the heat shield drops off. The MARDI camera will be taking images but they will not be uploaded until sometime after landing. See:
http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/mission/instruments/cameras/mardi/
George
Jerry, I love the biologist’s viewpoint you take when considering human behavior. Almost every single day, I have a ‘proper’ perspective moment where I get reminded we’re just a bunch of snobby apes wearing clothes. It’s quite eerie.
What really stirs me about this mission is that it shows what an evolved species can do when it applies brains that evolved, after all, for living on the savanna. We have the savvy not only to calculate ways to get vehicles from Earth to Mars with pinpoint accuracy (the last rover travelled 140 million kilometers and landed within 200 meters of its target), but also to fabricate such vehicles by wresting elements from the surface and atmosphere of Earth. Yes, a species of primate did that. It’s fantastic.
When I think of all the scientific discoveries we had to make and all the technologies we had to create in order to make this mission possible, the thousands of years of intellectual and physical achievement on which it rests, it’s awe-inspiring. We stand on the shoulders of giants. This is humanity at its best.
1 AM Eastern time, they have broken out the peanuts.
Watching NASA TV here in Sweden. It’s about 15 minutes before the ‘7 minutes of terror’ decent sequence.
The Eyes on the Solar System http:\\eyes.nasa.gov in live mode shows Time to Touchdown as 12:19 as of now, so I guess it is already landed, we just have to wait to find out what happened 🙂
Watching Eyes in Live Mode shows the data in Eyes is 2 seconds ahead of the feed from NASA TV 🙂
Entry phase started. Seven minutes to landing.
“We’re safe on Mars”
1:34 AM Eastern, touchdown. Safe on the surface of Mars.
They did it! I m all verklempt, they have pictures!