The whole world will be watching. Any failure to produce something soon after landing is confirmed, will create a firestorm of criticism for the mission and NASA.

Media stories are already busy talking up reasons why we may not see or hear anything for days post-touchdown. This does nothing to inspire confidence of anyone except the conspiracy theorist. With at least three orbiters capable of relaying some degree of data back to Earth, there won't be much sympathy for a long term delay regardless of reason.

Come on guys... be square with us... and make this work.

Its $2.5 BILLION, not million.

I can imagine from Alan's excitement he simply put Sunday again , instead of Monday ....

Here ....

Where and when to watch
NASA TV will provide live commentary on the countdown to landing beginning at 11:30 p.m. ET Sunday. We're due to receive the first signals relayed from Curiosity on the surface at 1:31 a.m. ET Sunday.

Since I think Alan will be at the command and control center for the announcement ....

I wish I was going to be there then ....

Thanks for keeping us informed during this exciting time for you .....

Thanks Alan ....

Imagine! A place where freezing cold, the atmosphere have 15% visibility, the sky will shifting that color orange to light blue.You can run faster than usin bolt on the surface, But you have to wear a hard harness protect your body form approximatly1% pressure consider earth. you can see huge mountains everywhere~ you see around desert like view. you feel you standing in the middle of evaporated ocean. you can see little rocks here and there look like same in the bottom in river. you can see dry river streams... you can see water drop footprints on surface...its like " Mars dreaming & waiting for the rain billions of years"

Actually the Mars landing is worse than porn as Damon 1415903 comments .

Here we have a real good chance to infect this world . It is absurd that most of the tests are to find out what is there that might be here , when the opposite should be done . What is there is theirs . This is the point . It is one thing to observe the universe and planet , it is another to be ready to land there , and more important bring anything back . Do not bring anything back , please . We are not ready to deal with condition of each planet . Certain there may be organisms that have adapted to that planet that may kill us if we expose ourselves to them . Our science has not dealt well with the diseases we have here let alone the diseases that we have no idea how to stop that may be on Mars . This is foolishness and recklessness of power staved men . We have a space station but these individuals are not on an alien planet . The fact is the few individuals we have on this space station have to be replaced and constantly tested . It is not a environment that we can live in very well and this is with the support of this planet .

When we cure aides and most disease , and we are fairly certain on how to kill different diseases this is the time to tread lightly on other planets , not now .

Jokes and buffoons aside this is an amazing thing we are attempting to accomplish..

We have disturbed them when we should have left them alone. Better watch out now. The aliens are coming!

Honestly, I'm sort of disappointed- AGAIN! More billions spent to merely look at rock and soil samples while ignoring the truly interesting stuff. Right now I'm looking at a picture of Mars from an earlier mission I posted on my wall next to my desk. It shows a 5 sided crater with a large geodesic dome at the bottom- I don't suppose that Curiosity will be so curious as to check that out, eh? Or how about those structures that Spirit went by and ignored (supposedly!) on one Martian night. You can see them at JPL's website if you search for Sol 2169. How nice of NASA to provide the world with the image of those structures out of the rear hazard camera as they simply drove by and ignored them. There must have been some interestingly colored dirt ahead that might have shown signs of ancient microbial life there on Mars! Apparently they have NO INTEREST WHATSOEVER in evidence of intelligent life existing/having existed there. In fact, one can pretty much count on NASA to ALWAYS land where there is little or nothing to be seen, and if there is you're lucky to get a view of it in the distance from the goddamned rear hazard camera! If you can't tell, I'm angry about this and I'm suprised no one else is too. I predict that this "Curiosity" rover will find nothing of interest. If it does we won't hear about it unless it deals with microbes or something similarly tame and uninteresting (unless you're a microbiologist or geologist!) So get ready Americans (and World!)! Drop your trousers and aim your gluteal cleft at Florida or Houston, grease up and prepare to have smoke blown up your ass, AGAIN! Our billions of dollars will have been spent to give a few select people any important info they find. The rest of us get rock scrapings, soil analysis, and MAYBE a picture from the goddamned rear hazard camera of something TRULY amazing in the distance as they drive away from it.

Hope this works out, and it all happens way after bed time.

I guess I will read about the crash in the paper in the morning.

Seriously though, while I see this thing as a technological and mechanical nightmare I hope it makes it.

Interesting, wee bit "rube goldberg" but interesting none the less,, more data would be good,, descent speed at chute opening? and after?..mass at moment of touchdown?..diameter of chute? etc,.. but hey,, not bad,... I wonder,..suppose they/it blew a "balloon" filled with, say, Helium, seconds before impact,.??..and the ability to "blow" others could be usefull if it gets hung up again..no??..I think the PSI is something like point 5 PSI,..??..in that kind of pressure helium should expand rather rapidly and to a large initial volume?..better than just a chute, gotta be,..btw, diameter of that chute??..re Alan and typo,s etc,,it happens pal,, I try and catch all mine, but never seem to get them all,..so be it,, we aint none of us "oracles"..I will be watching,..and gosh golly gee, NASA etc doesnt give us all!! the data etc,, surprised??..not I, ha ha ha...They pay the bills?? their choice I say,, I am gratefull for what we do get,.."I/we look on with a face of wonder".. and I remember watching sputnik,, its all relative I say,..a very kewl event and significant as well,,

Well im excited i hope it makes it there ok i mean i know it will not start doing its mission officially for like 50-60 day after it lands, but still just getting there and landing is what has me on edge.

if this fails and the rover does not make it and land safely i cannot imagine what the anti obama nuts will say and what the conspiracy nuts will say.

Due to the abundant life on Earth, it is difficult to imagine a process by which inorganic carbon without oxidation with water could provide for a source of abiogenic methane on Mars. This is not to say that it is not possible, but it does beg the question is the detection of methane on Mars biogenic or abiogenic, or is the current measure for detection of exoplanetary methane in error.

Per link -
http://www.criticalmass.uk.com/index.php/2012/07/02/possible-non-biological-source-of-martian-methane-emissions/
"In 2003 substantial plumes of Methane were detected on Mars causing a lot of excitement in the field of Astrobiology. Methane degrades quickly and shouldn’t last for long in the Martian atmosphere, so discovering substantial volumes was a clear indication that an active process was at work replenishing the gas. Meaning that Mars was in some way still alive… either in a biologic or geologic sense? Although Methane can be produced by geological activity, on Earth the primary source is the result of biological processes.

One of the greatest current mysteries in Astrobiology has to be that of the seasonal Martian methane emissions. Although some assumed a geological explanation, many saw them as a clear indication of life! Now an international team of researchers have discovered that methane escapes from meteorites that are irradiated by ultra violet light, offering another potential source for the high levels detected in the Martian atmosphere"

Let's hope that Curiosity, the new Mars rover, will be able to shed more light on the ongoing mystery.

In 1976, the space program was barely 19 years old at the time. During the first 19 years, we launched 1-man, Mercury capsules; 2-man, Gemini capsules; and 3-man, Apollo capsules into space. We not only landed on the moon, we drove moon buggies across its surface. We transformed the telecommunications industry. We were building the Shuttle Enterprise which would test whether or not we could launch large payloads of men and equipment into orbit. Then, just a couple of weeks after we celebrated our Bicentennial, the Viking probes successfully landed on Mars.

I was 13 years old at the time.

It's hard to believe that in the subsequent 36 years, we would shutdown our ability to manufacture the heaviest lifting rocket the world has ever seen (Saturn), retire our only transportation into space, kill off our moon program, confine ourselves to low Earth orbit, all this while most Americans just stop dreaming about achieving the things we all thought we were destined to achieve by the next millenium.

It's sad. Getting to Mars is really tough. Landing on Mars is even tougher. Americans should be proud that this is one of those things that we do really, really well. My 1976, 13-year-old self truly believed that men would not only have landed on Mars by now, but would be establishing a colony on the planet by now. As an American kid, I was so excited to be an American during the 60's and 70's. Anxious for the heavens to open up to American ingenuity. It wasn't going to be just military-trained astronauts going to space, it was going to be all of us. Those dreams have really withered due to governmental mismanagement and corporate irresponsibility. With those dreams, we're going to have to watch all of our profound knowledge we've gained by landing on the moon, and mars fade as our space engineers seek employment elsewhere.

What's truly unfortunate is this: Win or lose, success or failure, this is the last time we'll be touching the surface of Mars for a long, long time. We do have the upcoming MAVEN orbital mission next year, and that's it. We've pulled out of the ESA sample return mission, and we really don't have any future orbiters or landers being built as of this writing. Nothing. We're taking our toys and staying home.

Here's to Curiosity. The final "Hail Mary Pass" from one of the greatest governmental organizations that we have working for us. It's just depressing to watch NASA being slowly starved for funds because the rest of our government believes that we need to beat every single one of our plowshares into swords rather than the other way around.

Every landing is a pucker-up and hold-your-breath moment, they don't get any more 'routine' because we're making them harder every time with more ambitious vehicles. So I'll be awake, watching, wondering, and wowing.

While I give the landing a >90% chance of success, I'm not so sure we'll get enough signals fast enough -- or be able to understand unusual features of them -- to be sure what's really happened, for hours, if not days. And I'd love to turn out to have been excessively worried.

See y'all on line tonight.

Jim Oberg

www.jamesoberg.com

see my Mars exploration section....

Hope it is successful, too bad NASA get choked for money.

Here is a pic of the landing ellipse area . Looks small compared to the rest.

(www.calgarysun.com/2012/08/05/mars-rover-on-target-for-eye-of-the-needle-landing)

We interrupt this thread to bring you a special report:

The landing of the Mars Science Lab will be broadcast ONLY on the NFL Network, which will not be available to most to the US.

Please contact your cable operator and blame them only... or pay the NFL Network (you love them, right?) some money (in this economy) to let you see this event... along with as many commercials as possible.

Thank you. We now return you to the regularly scheduled comments.

Wonder if the F*cking christians will complain about this or life on other planets. :P Love you

Yeah, we screwed up our planet lets go find another one to screw up!!!

Angel4you,

Don't be so bleak about humanity going out into space and other worlds. At this pace, for a long time to come the only people going out will be highly trained in their jobs and it won't be the bottom of the barrel that will have the opportunity to out-migrate. On top of that they're probably likely to have pretty even tempers since they'll be on a ship for a while (selection system). Your average schmuck will be going nowhere.