Space enthusiasts will face “seven minutes of terror” as the Mars rover named Curiosity makes its descent on the Red Planet this Sunday.
“This is probably the most ambitious descent attempt,” Reuben H. Fleet resident scientist Lisa Will said.
But you don’t have to shake in your space boots alone. Balboa Park’s Reuben H. Fleet Science Center is hosting a special landing event that will air a live feed from NASA. Before the descent, the Fleet will take attendees on a journey through Mars in the planetarium and showcase short films highlighting the dangers Curiosity will face.
The event starts Sunday at 7:30 p.m. and costs between $8 and $10.
According to NASA Ambassador Jerry Hilburn, one of reasons the rover is heading to Mars is to see if the planet is a suitable home for humans.
Curiosity will roam Mars for two years, collecting information about radiation, water and geological makeup, or as Hilburn said, “the kinds of things you’d need to know if you were going to put a human on the planet.”