NASA’s live Mars rover landing happens this Thursday, and you’re invited to watch this thrilling event!
NASA is inviting everyone and anyone to take part in virtual activities and events as NASA’s Mars 2020 Perseverance rover lands on the Red Planet. Live touchdown scheduled for approximately 12:55 p.m. PST on Thursday, February 18.
NASA’s Mars 2020 Rover Artist’s Concept #1- This artist’s concept depicts NASA’s Mars 2020 rover exploring Mars.
NASA is offering many ways for the public to participate and stay up to date on landing information, mission highlights, and interaction opportunities.
How to watch the Mars Rover Landing
Live coverage and landing commentary from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California will begin at 11:15 a.m. on the NASA TV Public Channel and the agency’s website, as well as the NASA App, YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook, among others.
Stay connected and let people know you’re following the mission on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Join the conversation, ask questions, and get answers online by using #CountdownToMars.
Perseverance launched on July 30th, 2020, from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. It is the most sophisticated rover NASA has ever sent to the Red Planet. It will collect carefully selected and documented rock and sediment samples for future return to Earth, search for signs of ancient microbial life, characterize the planet’s geology and climate, and pave the way for human exploration beyond the Moon.
Perseverance also is carrying a technology experiment – the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter – that will attempt the first powered, controlled flight on another planet.
NASA Virtual Guest Experience
NASA will provide a virtual guest experience for members of the public during the Mars rover landing, with notifications about mission updates, curated mission resources, and a virtual passport stamp available after landing.
Sign up for the Virtual Guest Experience.
You can also upload a picture to the Mars Perseverance Photo Booth and put yourself, your family or your super pet on Mars, or at mission control (one option shown above).
Opportunities for Students, Teachers, Educators
Design, build, and land your own spacecraft – just like NASA scientists and engineers do. Join NASA’s Mission to Mars Student Challenge, where classrooms, informal education groups, families and individuals will be able to participate in landing week question-and-answer sessions with mission experts and submit student questions and work that could be featured during NASA broadcasts leading up to and on landing day.
A Mars 2020 STEM toolkit also is available, with stories on the students who named Perseverance and Ingenuity, opportunities to code your own Mars exploration games, and more.
Lighting Towns Red Around the World
To celebrate NASA’s Mars Perseverance rover landing, the Empire State Building in New York will light its tower red on Tuesday, Feb. 16, starting at sunset. In addition, the Los Angeles International Airport gateway pylons will glow red from sundown on Wednesday, Feb. 17, through sunrise Friday, Feb. 19. Other sites in the United States recognizing the upcoming landing include select buildings along the Chicago skyline, such as the Adler Planetarium. NASA invites cities around the country and world to participate in “lighting the town red.”
NASA TV event schedule for Mars Perseverance rover landing
NASA TV will air a number of events leading up to, including, and following the landing. Please check the NASA TV schedule for the latest updates. All times below are PST.
Tuesday, Feb. 16
10 a.m. – News conference: Mission engineering and technology overview
12:30 p.m. – News conference: Mission science overview
Wednesday, Feb. 17
10 a.m. – News conference: Mission landing update
12 p.m. – News conference: Searching for Ancient Life at Mars and in Samples Returned to Earth
Thursday, Feb. 18
11:15 a.m. – Live landing Broadcast on the NASA TV Public Channel and online.
- In addition, an uninterrupted clean feed of cameras from inside JPL Mission Control, with mission audio only, will be available starting at 11 a.m. on the NASA TV Media Channel, and at JPL’s Raw YouTube channel. A 360-degree livestream of the Mars landing from inside mission control, including landing commentary, will be available at the JPL’s main YouTube channel.
11:30 a.m. – “Juntos perseveramos,” the Spanish-language live landing commentary show, will air on NASA en Español’s YouTube channel.
Approximately 12:55 p.m. – Expected Perseverance touchdown on Mars
No earlier than 2:30 p.m. – Postlanding news conference
Friday, Feb. 19
10 a.m. – News conference: Mission status update
Monday, Feb. 22
11 a.m. – News conference: Mission status update
The rover landing isn’t all that you can see on NASA Live. In addition, NASA at Home offers videos, podcasts, ebooks, educational resources and activities. Check out all of the amazing things that NASA has to offer.
Or check out this FREE event all about Space and Science from Virtual Kidsweek 2021 presented by the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum. Airing Thursday, February 18, 2021, with programming from 7:00 AM – 4:30 PM PST. You can see the full schedule and register at the link.
To help celebrate this epic day, check out what Krispy Kreme has planned for Thursday as well.
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