{"143481":{"#nid":"143481","#data":{"type":"event","title":"Mars Landing Party","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EIf all goes according to plan, at 1:31 a.m. on Aug. 6 a signal announcing\u0026nbsp;the landing of NASA\u2019s Curiosity rover on Mars will have made its way across 160 million miles\u0026nbsp;of space to the Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL) in Pasadena, Ca., and then ricocheted around the\u0026nbsp;Internet to the Centergy Building at Georgia Tech where a crowd of space\u0026nbsp;fans, science enthusiasts and planetary science researchers will have gathered.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe mission, officially called the \u0022Mars Science Laboratory,\u0022 has been on its way to the Red\u0026nbsp;Planet since its launch from Cape Canaveral late last November. A presentation by local\u0026nbsp;NASAJPL\u0026nbsp;Solar System Ambassador Ginny Mauldin-Kinney in January put the robotic spacecraft on\u0026nbsp;the radar of the Atlanta Science Tavern, a grassroots public science forum with almost 2,300\u0026nbsp;members, and initial plans for a party to celebrate Curiosity\u2019s landing began to take shape.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe resulting Atlanta Mars Landing Party has since joined the ranks of science and aerospace\u0026nbsp;museum-based gatherings around the world, including the two-day Planetfest 2012 organized\u0026nbsp;by the Planetary Society. The feature\u0026nbsp;research scientists from Georgia Tech speaking on\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cul\u003E\u003Cli\u003Ethe chemical origins of life here and elsewhere,\u003C\/li\u003E\u003Cli\u003Efuture space science missions to the Moon, Mercury and Jupiter\u2019s icy moons,\u003C\/li\u003E\u003Cli\u003Eand an assessment of what we have learned from Mars exploration so far.\u003C\/li\u003E\u003C\/ul\u003E\u003Cp\u003EIt will conclude with Mauldin-Kinney presenting an up-to-date overview of the Mars Science\u0026nbsp;Laboratory mission, including a detailed look at how Curiosity will go about exploring the terrain\u0026nbsp;in the vicinity of her landing site searching for telltale signs of the preconditions for life on that\u0026nbsp;other marvelous world.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAt midnight the researchers turn into revelers as live NASA-JPL coverage of Curiosity\u2019s entry,\u0026nbsp;descent and landing begins and the real party kicks off. Plans are to have an Xbox video game console on hand equipped with NASA\u2019s recently released Mars Rover Landing game so that\u0026nbsp;partygoers can try their hand at landing the rover before Curiosity takes her turn at bat.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDoors will open at 6:30 p.m. with the program getting underway at 7 p.m. A contribution of $5 is\u0026nbsp;requested for admission. Beverages and light snacks will be provided while supplies last.\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EA Mars Landing Party, featuring speakers from Georgia Tech, will be held on Aug. 5 at 7 p.m.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"A Mars Landing Party, featuring speakers from Georgia Tech, will be held on Aug. 5 at 7 p.m."}],"uid":"27445","created_gmt":"2012-08-01 09:13:01","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 01:59:20","author":"Amelia Pavlik","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","field_event_time":{"event_time_start":"2012-08-05T20:00:00-04:00","event_time_end":"2012-08-06T04:00:00-04:00","event_time_end_last":"2012-08-06T04:00:00-04:00","gmt_time_start":"2012-08-06 00:00:00","gmt_time_end":"2012-08-06 08:00:00","gmt_time_end_last":"2012-08-06 08:00:00","rrule":null,"timezone":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"related_links":[{"url":"http:\/\/marslandingparty.com\/","title":"Mars Landing Party Website"}],"groups":[{"id":"1182","name":"General"}],"categories":[],"keywords":[{"id":"39241","name":"Atlanta Science Tavern"},{"id":"39251","name":"Mars Landing"},{"id":"408","name":"NASA"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[{"id":"1789","name":"Conference\/Symposium"}],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:marc@atlantasciencetavern.com\u0022\u003EMarc Merlin\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EAtlanta Science Tavern\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}