Tomorrow, NASA’s Curiosity rover reaches its 1-year anniversary of exploration on the surface of Mars. The agency will celebrate the anniversary of the Curiosity rover with a media event and with images and video gathered by curiosity on the red planet.
“Successes of our Curiosity — that dramatic touchdown a year ago and the science findings since then — advance us toward further exploration, including sending humans to an asteroid and Mars,” said NASA Administrator Charles Bolden. “Wheel tracks now, will lead to boot prints later.”
One year ago, on millions around the world watched online as the live video and images were streamed back to earth from the surface of Mars just after Curiosity made a successful landing in a crater on the Red Planet.
Since that time, the Curiosity rover has sent back more than 36,700 full images and 35,000 thumbnail images; fired more than 75,000 laser shots to investigate the composition of targets; collected and analyzed sample material from two rocks; and driven more than one mile (1.6 kilometers), according to a NASA press release.
NASA television, and the online video stream below, will air the celebration as Curiosity team members at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena share remembrances about the dramatic landing night and the mission.
The Curiosity Mars Rover anniversary event is scheduled to air 10:45 a.m. to noon EDT (7:45 to 9 a.m. PDT) on Tuesday, Aug. 6 and another event from NASA Headquarters in Washington from noon to 1:30 p.m. Viewers can watch the Curiosity event online below via the streaming video from NASA TV:
Live streaming video by Ustream
The second event will reportedly feature NASA officials and crew members aboard the International Space Station as they observe the rover anniversary and discuss how its activities and other robotic projects are helping prepare for a human mission to Mars and an asteroid.
Online users will have the chance to ask questions during the events, or ahead of time, through social media channels via Twitter and Google+ using the hashtag #askNASA.