In less than two weeks, the men and women of NASA will sit back with the rest of the world, hold their breath, and see if the Mars Science Laboratory, Curiosity, can complete a successful landing. In the meantime, a campaign encourages you to ‘Get Curious’ by visiting GetCurious.com, where you can learn more about the landing of the Mars rover Curiosity, the benefits of space exploration and the unique financial and educational opportunities that exploring Mars will bring to the United States and the rest of the world.
As we showed you a few weeks ago, Curiosity faces incredible challenges just getting to Mars. Should the landing be successful, we stand to learn much from the mobile laboratory. “The potential knowledge we could gain from Curiosity‘s exploration is tremendous,” Explore Mars Executive Director Chris Carberry said. “We have an opportunity to learn if life once could have existed or could still exist on Mars. A successful MSL mission will also move us one step closer to the goal of putting humans on Mars by 2030.”
The GetCurious.com site, which is sponsored by Explore Mars, United Launch Alliance, and Aerojet, provides daily information concerning the Mars Science Laboratory and learn more about the program. What’s more, there are plenty of activities for kids, students, and educators, as well as ways for the curious to connect with each other.
If you’re interested in checking out some photos and videos or just want to build some anticipation with the countdown ticker, this site is a must-bookmark. In addition, science and astronomy groups, organizations and individuals across the nation are encouraged to plan local watch parties at restaurants, pubs, universities, planetariums and other venues to join space enthusiasts around the world.
Curiosity began its eight month journey in November 2011 and will make its landing on August 5th at 1:31 am ET. The NASA Channel will be broadcasting live online, as well as news stations on television. Follow the discussion on Twitter using #MarsParties.
