On Sunday night, the Mars Science Laboratory rover Curiosity (the one on the right; the biggest, baddest, most awesomest Mars rover ever) will attempt to land on Mars. Curiosity is a nuclear powered Mini Cooper sized robotic geologist, much bigger and more capable than previous rovers. It’s going to be a moment of great excitement when Curiosity touches down, and there are a number of ways that you can watch.
If you have the opportunity (Mars rover pun intended) check with your local science museum, planetarium or hackerspace to find out if they’re hosting a viewing party.
Here in California, the Exploratorium currently hasa special exhibition up, including the simplified full-scale model of the rover in the picture above. They will be airing a live webcast of the landing on Sunday night. And, NASA Ames Exploration Center in Mountain View, is hosting a live broadcast on-site with over 5000 people. The free tickets for the event went very quickly.
” much bigger and more capable than previous rovers”
Oh my, did you really say that? Opportunity is a robotic rover on the planet Mars, active since 2004 and the remaining rover in NASA’s ongoing Mars Exploration Rover Mission. Launched from Earth on July 7, 2003, it landed on January 25, 2004 … MER-B is still active as of 2012, having already exceeded its planned duration of activity thirty times over.
More capable maybe, but it has some mighty big shoes to fill.
Make those “mighty big wheels,” and you couldn’t be more correct.