NASA to broadcast MARS landing live at Times Square

[Seanr]

Daring NASA Mars Mission Broadcast Lands In Times Square

WASHINGTON -- The Toshiba Vision screen in New York City's Times Square will become the largest East Coast location for the public to see live mission coverage of Curiosity, NASA's most advanced planetary rover, as it lands on the Martian surface at 1:31 a.m. EDT August 6.

The Toshiba Vision screen will broadcast NASA TV coverage beginning at 11:30 p.m. EDT August 5 and continuing through 4 a.m. EDT the next day. Programming will originate from Mission Control at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory's (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif. The rover is on a precise course for a landing beside a Martian mountain to begin 2 years of unprecedented scientific detective work.

"In the city that never sleeps, the historic Times Square will be the place for New Yorkers to participate in this historic landing," said John Grunsfeld, associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate. "When you think of all the big news events in history, you think of Times Square, and I can think of no better venue to celebrate this news-making event on Mars."

Getting Curiosity to the surface of Mars will not be easy. During a critical period lasting only about 7 minutes, the MSL spacecraft carrying Curiosity must slow down from about 13,200 mph (about 5,900 meters per second) to allow the rover to land on the surface at about 1.7 mph (three-fourths of a meter per second). For the landing to succeed, hundreds of events will need to go right, many with split-second timing. All are controlled autonomously by the spacecraft.

Prominently positioned below the world-famous New Year's Eve ball in Times Square, the Toshiba Vision dual LED screens will allow viewers to see the action from Mission Control, including receipt of the first signal from Mars following a successful landing. "We're pleased the Toshiba Vision screens will offer a unique view of this great scientific achievement, the landing of the rover Curiosity on Mars," says Eddie Temistokle, senior manager of corporate communications and corporate social responsibility for Toshiba America Inc.

Visitors to Times Square can hear the audio portion of NASA's coverage along with other listeners around the world by tuning in to the online radio station Third Rock Radio. This is the first time Third Rock Radio will provide live coverage of a NASA event. Third Rock Radio can be streamed from the NASA homepage at and on smart phones and tablets through the Tuneln mobile app.

In the first several weeks after landing, JPL mission controllers will put the rover through a series of checkouts and activities to characterize its performance on Mars while gradually ramping up scientific investigations. Curiosity then will begin investigating whether an area with a wet history inside Mars' Gale Crater ever has offered an environment favorable for microbial life.

The mission is managed by JPL for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. Curiosity was designed, developed and assembled at JPL.

NASA centers around the country, including NASA Headquarters in Washington, will be open for landing events. Many science centers also are opening for events focused on the Curiosity landing. To find events near you, visit:

http://go.nasa.gov/QtmuY7


Third Rock Radio, produced under a NASA Space Act Agreement with RFC Media of Houston, was created to inspire young Americans with an interest in science/technology and the benefits of space flight and exploration. Listeners can find the audio broadcast at:

http://www.thirdrockradio.net


Information to watch and participate in Curiosity's landing is available at:

http://www.nasa.gov/mars

I am excite.. has this been already posted?

[Cail]

thats pretty awesome, wish i could be there for it

[Raldo]

I was under the impression that it wouldn't be sending video from the lander itself, so... what are they going to show? Ground control? If so, yawn.

[Hatedregret]

Yeah, saw the previews a ton on TV. Can't wait. Only problem is that it says 10:00 p.m. on the 6th on that commercial. May make a ton of people miss it.

[Xno Kappa]

Isn't there a 7-minute dead time between the rover and Earth during it's descent NASA is pretty worried about?

[Rhinox]

what exactly is a mars lading?

[Cail]

Isn't there a 7-minute dead time between the rover and Earth during it's descent NASA is pretty worried about?

yea, the delay is pretty big but if its automated, it might not be as big a deal

[Mizango]

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[Xno Kappa]

Really love this kind of stuff, if I had another career path in a new life it'd be something with astronomy. Shit like Titan and Europa fascinate me like crazy.

[Tajin]

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OH YOU

[noblemountain]

Saw the preview for this last night on Science channel. Awesome that we're starting to really explore Mars...are there any orbiters or landers looking at or planned for Venus now?

[Xno Kappa]

WHEN IS THIS HAPPENING AND LINK!?

[Sepukku]

Its kind of sad there's 12 posts about this but over 3,500 posts about Call of Duty: MW3. Landing on another planet would change the entire human species, I don't know if some of the current organized religions could handle that development. I also suspect a large # of people, religious or not, would be suspicious and cynical about it being faked.

[Sepukku]

Neil Tyson De Grason or w/e the smooth black astrophysicist's name is wrote an article for Time.com about this; completely put modern society on blast and said they'd rather tune in to see Snooki.

[Salodin]

What are you complaining about? Its not like this is new, we've been to mars before. Sure we have a shiney new toy there, doing shiney new experiments, but I'm not getting excited till I see the results of said experiments.

Right now, this is just par for course rock landing, nothing to bounce off the walls for. Id be more pissed if nasa wasn't doing something like this, its what we pay them to do.

[Hatedregret]

Dude..... They are landing something on another fucking planet. From really really far away. To run tests and communicate with the rover from another fucking planet. I can't believe the lack of excitement for this. Neil is right though. There will be more people watching True Blood and Weeds than this. I get that there isn't any life around us. That's what everyone wants to see. I get it, but we won't ever get far enough out to find it if people stay so lackluster about advancement. Stop having your kids grow up with money in mind. Let the accountants/lawyers/etc fade away and get back to math/science/engineering. "Steps off the soapbox"

[BaneTheBrawler]

Especially with the Shuttle program being scrapped. This is why I want to be an Engineer. So I can use all my awesome practical ideas to get rich as fuck, then use that fortune to make all my awesome impractical ideas come true. Like building a Space Station in the science fiction sense, like Deep Space Nine or something, and actually having shuttles that shuttle. From there, moon bases and asteroid mining and whatnot. Because why the hell not?

Anyway, cool as hell that they're broadcasting it, but tbh I probably won't watch it, despite that. I've seen the photos and whatnot from the other mars rovers and once you get over the "holy shit this is from another planet" factor its not very impressive. Just a red horizon, lots of dust and rocks. I'll be interested in what they find, though.

[Sepukku]

What are you complaining about? Its not like this is new, we've been to mars before. Sure we have a shiney new toy there, doing shiney new experiments, but I'm not getting excited till I see the results of said experiments.

Right now, this is just par for course rock landing, nothing to bounce off the walls for. Id be more pissed if nasa wasn't doing something like this, its what we pay them to do.

You do realize that these exploratory rover missions are ESSENTIAL pre-cursors to manned missions? We need this rover to land and function properly and a dozen more after it to get what we need to make it to Mars in a manned mission. Thats why these are so pivotal - its important to see these not as "another same old, same old" but as small baby steps towards the goal.

[Ghost_Wheel22]

I, for one, welcome our new traces of Martian lifeform overlords.

[Salodin]

I understand that, but that doesn't change the facts behind what I said. Once upon a time just sending a rocket with a satellite into outer space was a huge deal, now its boring and par for course. Going to mars is the baby step to much more, but don't complain that people aren't more excited about something we've done (very successfully) before.

I'm saving that excitement for the experiments the rover does, the actual landing of this mission isn't terribly exciting for me. We've landed shit on the moon, pretty sure we landed shit on a moving asteroid before too. Ill get giddy like a school girl when the rover determines there was life on mars once upon a time.