Around 1:31AM Eastern Time on Monday August 6 the Mars Science Laboratory named Curiosity is slated to land on Mars. Due to the radio lag between Mars and Earth, the first news of the landing will arrive here 14 minutes later. No news then is bad news, possibly signifying the difference between gold medal or smoking crater.

Find an animation of the landing sequence HERE, and an explanation of the various challenges it entails HERE. The Atlantic InFocus blog published a series of images of Curiosity and its launch HERE, nicely complementing the NASA animations. PBS' NewsHour had this background story yesterday and will monitor the landing online, as will NASA.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed: go Curiosity! laugh

PS, the freeware Mars 'Sunclock' app Mars24 may provide a helpful overview of things.

alternaut ◉ moderator