mars rover

Curiosity Rover on Track for August 5 Landing

Posted on by Promega

[wpvideo kN9KABwW]With the amazing, beyond belief success of the Mars Rovers Spirit and Opportunity, the expectations are high for Curiosity. However, the task is far more difficult. With a much larger rover to land, the landing is more difficult. If you haven’t seen NASA’s “Seven Minutes of Terror” video, it’s worth a look.

Where will you be on August 5? Will you be awake and holding your breath and watching your twitter feed—looking for the first news of a successful landing from NASA?

Red Rover, Red Rover

Posted on by Promega

[wpvideo j5SvPhHA]On November 26, NASA launched the Mars Science Laboratory from Cape Canaveral. The science laboratory contains the newest Mars rover, Curiosity. NASA has already received the first signal from the laboratory, shortly after it separated from the rocket. The Mars Science Laboratory is flying free toward the red planet.

NASA has a wonderful video describing how the science laboratory landing is planned. The video illustrates just how complex a mission this is. To think that we can even imagine, must less carry out, such a feat of technology and engineering is amazing. Enjoy the video, and let’s hope that on August 6, 2012, Curiosity will land safely and begin teaching us more about our neighboring planet.

If you have difficulty with the embedded video, here’s a link to the video on the NASA website.