Text reproduced with thanks from a NASA Education Express blog Times listed have been corrected for Australian Eastern Standard Time.
In a few weeks, NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity is set to land on Mars. What will this rover do? Curiosity will look for things that sustain life: signs of long-term water in the past or present and the right chemical ingredients for life (e.g., carbon-based molecules, the chemical building blocks of life). Use this historic occasion to introduce current real-world science and engineering to your students.
Curiosity is scheduled to land on Mars at 3:31 p.m. AEST on Monday, Aug. 6, 2012. That evening, Mars will be visible in the night sky with a telescope or with the naked eye. Take this opportunity to host a Mars-gazing party!
— Looking for activities to get students excited about the upcoming landing? A number of short, hands-on activities relating to the mission are available at http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/participate/marsforeducators/soi/.
— For a basic overview of the Red Planet, visit the following websites:
Basic Information on Mars
http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/profile.cfm?Object=Mars
Mars Image Collection
http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/
3-D Images of Mars
http://mars3d.jpl.nasa.gov/
— Want to know more about the area where the Curiosity rover will be landing on Mars? Visit the following websites to learn more about Gale Crater.
Gale’s Mount Sharp Compared to Three Big Mountains on Earth
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/msl/multimedia/pia15292-Fig2.html
— The Curiosity rover will landing using a bold new landing technique. Check out the “Seven Minutes of Terror” video at the link below to see how rockets, parachutes and a “sky crane” will help Curiosity make a soft landing on Mars.
http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/multimedia/videos/index.cfm?v=49
— Live media coverage of the Curiosity landing will be on NASA TV: visit http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv.
— Curiosity also has a presence on Twitter and Facebook.
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/marscuriosity
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/marscuriosity
For up-to-the-minute mission information about the Curiosity rover and progress toward its Mars landing, visit http://www.nasa.gov/mars and http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov.
