Want to be part of the Mars Science Laboratory landing event and join thousands of others in watching it live? Universe Today is teaming up with Google, the SETI Institute and CosmoQuest to provide unprecedented, live coverage of the historic landing of the Curiosity rover on Mars. Starting at 8 pm PDT on August 5th (03:00 UTC August 6th) a live, 4-hour webcast will highlight the landing of the car-sized robotic roving laboratory. During the webcast, via a Google+ Hangout on Air, scientists, engineers and other experts will provide unique insight into the rover and the landing, and viewers will have the chance to interact and ask questions.
Hosted by Universe Today’s Fraser Cain, along with Dr. Pamela Gay and Dr. Phil Plait, the webcast will feature interviews with special guests, a live video feed from NASA of the landing, and live coverage from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and the Planetary Society’s PlanetFest by reporters Scott Lewis and Amy Shira Teitel, who will be on location to interview members of the MSL team, as well as and other scientists and NASA officials that will be on hand.
The landing itself is scheduled for 10:31 p.m. PDT Aug. 5 (05:31 UTC Aug. 6). Curiosity’s landing will mark the start of a two-year mission to investigate whether one of the most intriguing places on Mars ever has offered an environment favorable for microbial life.
As you know, Universe Today, in collaboration with CosmoQuest hosts weekly virtual star parties and science conversations via Google+ Hangouts on Air, and for the Transit of Venus, hosted a special Hangout event that was watched by nearly 7,000 viewers.
Those interested in watching Universe Today’s MSL landing event can find more information and also sign up to “attend” the Hangout on Air here.
The feed will also be available on Universe Today’s YouTube live feed.
You can also follow the action via Twitter from Universe Today (@universetoday) and CosmoQuest (@CosmoQuestX ) by using the hashtag #marshangout
I’d love to – however I work nights and am taking time off that week. I’m usually up at 1:30am and would have been happily watching from work, but I’m going to take the opportunity to sleep at night next to my wife – something I usually only get to do on the weekends. I know 1:30 isn’t really up too late, but if we lose signal I’d still be up for the next two hours hoping a signal would be reacquired, and if we get confirmation there’s always a lag before we get the first pics – then I’d sit around waiting for more. Either way I’d be up til 3:30.
I hope to wake up to good news next week!
Yeah…I work days, and may have to sleep this one out. It was hard enough arranging to wake up (twice!) for the Dragon/Falcon 9 launch.
Hope the morning news is good at breakfast time!
I’ll be there! Ummm.. spraking of similar.. What’s up with the ‘Hang Out’? The last addition to the archive is from July 12th. Today is the 31st. That means there are a couple episodes missing? Did you guys get too busy to post or go on vacation or something? Or is it my computer again? aka operator error? dzzzzz…
I don’t always get the time to listen to you live… but I’m there most of the time… for the Hang Out AND the Star Parties.
Everyone’s summer schedule was getting too hard to coordinate, so the Weekly Space Hangout is taking time off until September!
Thanks for the update Nancy! Then he sighs and says: Bummer… I’ll miss you guys!”
Kevin those are all good points, but I am pretty sure that if I tried to sleep I’d just wake up at some point and be dying of curiousity (pun was unintended for a microsecond) so would get up for a quick peek, and yes, not get back to bed until at least 3:30!
Yeah 7pm(ish) my local time!
Fantastic, guys, thank you. I fully intend to be sitting, at 1.31pm on Monday 6 August, our local time, at the lunch table overlooking the beach and the Indian Ocean here in Perth, Western Australia, viewing the live stream on my laptop. With any kind of luck, the winter sun will be shining as it is now and I’ll be enjoying a crayfish and prawn sandwich or similar, washed down with a glass of dry white wine.
It’s hard to describe how much I look forward to this with so much pleasure. Thanks, NASA, and break a leg, or the space equivalent. I’m excited.
The crazy thing is, so few people know about this and even fewer people care. I bet I get looks of amazement when I set up in the cafe. Tiddlers!
Speaking of breaking a leg, I wonder how you’d treat that in zero g. Would the astronaut come back down with one leg longer than the other?
Whats all the hub bub about? A freakin billion dollar remote controlled car landing on a desolate place? While billions are starving on a habitable place!
Why don’t you ask those who (in 2006) spent nearly $100 billion worldwide on Internet pornography to give their money to the “billions [who] are starving on a habitable place” instead of helping to finance criminals and other bloody degenerates?!