Comedian Stephen Colbert Talks with NASA's John Grunsfeld About Curiosity Rover Landing

By Nancy Atkinson - August 2, 2012 at 1:50 PM UTC | Site News

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NASA Chief Scientist John Grunsfeld took Stephen Colbert's

"Colbert Report"

audience on a guided tour through the seven minutes of terror that the Curiosity rover will endure to land on Mars, and the two also discussed the possibility of life on Mars. Grunsfeld also shocked Colbert for a moment when he said the Curiosity rover won't discover a thing ... but then continued to say it will be the scientists who make the discoveries, and Grunsfeld predicted it will be an amazing 2 years for the MSL scientists during Curiosity's prime mission.

Grunsfeld also mentioned that the NASA TV video feed of the landing will be broadcast live on the big screens in Times Square in New York City. For any of our readers in NYC, you can find out more information about this event

here,

and we'd love to hear about it if you attend!

Apologies in advance, as the above video may not be viewable in all areas of the world (or the Universe.)

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson is a space journalist and author with a passion for telling the stories of people involved in space exploration and astronomy. She is currently retired from daily writing, but worked at Universe Today for 20 years as a writer and editor. She also contributed articles to The Planetary Society, Ad Astra (National Space Society), New Scientist and many other online outlets.

Her 2019 book, "Eight Years to the Moon: The History of the Apollo Missions,” shares the untold stories of engineers and scientists who worked behind the scenes to make the Apollo program so successful, despite the daunting odds against it. Her first book “Incredible Stories From Space: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Missions Changing Our View of the Cosmos” (2016) tells the stories of 37 scientists and engineers that work on several current NASA robotic missions to explore the solar system and beyond.

Nancy is also a NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador, and through this program, she has the opportunity to share her passion of space and astronomy with children and adults through presentations and programs. Nancy's personal website is nancyatkinson.com