When NASAs Mars Curiosity rover lands on Mars August 5, scientists say theyll be in for seven minutes of terror.

Surveying the landing process from a control station on Earth, NASAs crew wont know whats happening with the rover due to a delayed signal. It takes 14 minutes for the rovers signal to reach from Mars to Earth, meaning NASA will be observing the process on a delayed timeline.

When we first get word that weve touched the top of the atmosphere, the vehicle has been alive or dead on the surface for at least seven minutes, said engineer Adam Stelzner in a NASA video.

And its not like the landing process is simple. The rover will go through a complicated and strange series of events on its way to the surface of Mars. This oddly-gripping video outlines them all. (Its five minutes long, but its a good five minutes. Take a look.)

Hat tip to Gizmodo.

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NASA says Mars landing will be ’7 minutes of terror’

Media representatives are invited to attend an event marking the arrival of NASA's first space-bound Orion spacecraft at the agency's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The event will take place at 10 a.m. EDT, Monday, July 2, at Kennedy's Operations and Checkout Building and be carried live on NASA Television and the agency's website.

The Orion spacecraft will carry astronauts farther into the solar system than ever before. It will provide emergency abort capability, sustain the crew during the space travel and provide safe re-entry from deep space.

Speakers include:

-- Sen. Bill Nelson -- NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver -- NASA Orion Program Manager Mark Geyer -- NASA Deputy Associate Administrator for Exploration Systems Development Dan Dumbacher -- NASA Space Launch System Spacecraft and Payload Integration Manager David Beaman -- NASA Ground Systems Development and Operations Program Manager Pepper Phillips

NASA participants will discuss progress made to-date on final assembly and integration of the spacecraft, which will launch on Exploration Flight Test-1, an uncrewed mission planned for 2014. This test will see Orion travel farther into space than any human spacecraft has gone in more than 40 years. In advance of its launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., the Orion production team will apply heat shielding thermal protection systems, avionics and other subsystems to the spacecraft.

Additionally, NASA will host an interactive session from 11:45 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., with agency leaders and Orion Program managers to answer questions from followers of NASA's social media accounts. Followers on Twitter can ask a question during the event using the hashtag #askNASA. On NASA Facebook and Google+, a comment thread will open for questions the morning of the event.

Journalists must arrive at Kennedy's Press Site by 8:30 a.m., Monday, July 2, for transportation to the Operations and Checkout Building for a tour and the ceremony. Badges for the event can be picked up at the Kennedy Space Center Badging Office on State Road 405.

International journalists must apply for credentials by 5 p.m., Sunday, June 24, to cover the event. For U.S. journalists, the deadline to apply is 5 p.m., Thursday, June 28. All media accreditation requests must be submitted online at: https://media.ksc.nasa.gov

In 2017, Orion will be launched by NASA's Space Launch System (SLS), a heavy-lift rocket that will provide an entirely new capability for human exploration beyond low Earth orbit. Designed to be flexible for launching spacecraft for crew and cargo missions, SLS will enable new missions of exploration and expand human presence across the solar system.

Likewise, NASA's Ground Systems Development and Operations Program, managed at Kennedy, is preparing to process and launch the next-generation vehicles and spacecraft designed to achieve NASA's goals for space exploration.

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NASA Invites Media To Orion Crew Module Arrival At Kennedy

WASHINGTON, June 21 (UPI) -- NASA says it has launched an Internet portal to accelerate technology transfer from the space agency to U.S. businesses, industry and the public.

The Technology Transfer Portal provides a Web-based one-stop front door to the agency's unique intellectual property assets available for technology transfer and infusion into America's new technology and innovation-driven economy, the space agency reported Thursday.

Licenses, patents and intellectual property agreements between NASA and private partners often result in new innovations, products and businesses, the agency said.

"One of NASA's highest priority goals is to streamline its technology transfer procedures, support additional government-industry collaboration and encourage the commercialization of novel technologies flowing from our federal laboratories," NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said at the agency's headquarters in Washington.

The portal simplifies and speeds access to the agency's intellectual property portfolio, much of which is available for licensing, and features a searchable, categorized database of NASA's patents.

"A priority of NASA is to get federally funded new technologies into the commercial marketplace," NASA Chief Technologist Mason Peck said. "We're hopeful that entrepreneurs, businesses of all sizes and anyone looking for innovative solutions to technology problems will explore NASA's Technology Transfer Portal to find opportunities to transfer NASA technologies into innovative solutions for the nation."

NASA's Technology Transfer Portal is at http://technology.nasa.gov.

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NASA technology-sharing portal announced

NASA's super smart computer Pleiades just became a whole lot more powerful. In order to keep up with the demands of scientists and engineers working for NASA, the computer's performance was enhanced by 14% earlier this month.

Excerpt from:

NASA's World-Beating Supercomputer Gets 14% Faster

Version 1.5 of NASA Visualization Explorer (for iPad) improves on a useful science app that I reviewed in version 1.0.3. The latest version adds larger images, pinch and zoom-ability, marking of favorites, playlists of stories, and the ability to save stories for offline reading. The ability to save stories to your iPad is particularly significant. Although a fast Internet connection is still helpful in downloading storiesmost of which contain one or more videosstories saved on your iPad for later viewing will load instantly, whether you're online or not.

NASA isnt only about space; it's had a fleet of Earth-monitoring satellites for more than 40 years. NASA Visualization Explorer (for iPad) combines images, videos, and simulations from both the cosmos and our own planet in a series of informative and visually stunning stories, each highlighting a different finding or aspect of NASAs work.

Start Your Exploration

When you open the NASA Visualization Explorer (aka NASAViz) app, clicking on a menu icon at the screens lower left corner brings up the full menu of available stories, identified by title, date, and an associated image. You can also access lists of stories, sorted by topic: Earth; Planets and Moons; Sun; and Universe, as well as unread and saved stories and custom story lists.

Clicking on any of the stories brings up an image (or video) and caption, while along the bottom are thumbnails with more images and/or videos related to the caption. You can shrink the caption to show a full-screen image, or access the next story (or previous one), by clicking a right or left arrow. Holding your finger to an image lets you save it to a Photo Album on your iPad, print it, copy it, or email it, or share it to Facebook or Twitter. Stretching an image brings up a full-screen version.

At the screens lower right corner are four icons. A down arrow lets you save a story with all related images and video for offline viewing. A star arrow lets you mark stories as your personal Favorites. A plus icon lets you create custom lists of stories.

The last icon, at the lower right corner of the screen, is a right arrow. It lets you copy a story, open it in Safari on the NASAViz Web site (which includes the content of all the stories); share the storys URL to Facebook or Twitter, e-mail or text it.

A gear icon in the screens upper left corner takes you to the Control Panel, which gives you information about the app and lets you change some basic settings. The About tab discusses the apps creation by the Goddard Space Flight Center, while Instructions gives you a basic primer for using the app, and theres a button for sending feedback to the apps development team.

Stellar Content

There are plenty of timely stories, too, such as the one about the survival and amazing performance of sungrazing Comet Lovejoy, including videos of its reappearance after an exceedingly close encounter with our star. There's even a later video of the comet, now sporting a long tail, taken from the International Space Station. Another story that gained some play in the press was the discovery by NASAs Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope of antimatter bursts released by thunderstorms. It, too, is featured in NASA Visualization Explorer. Visions of Venus contains a superb video of our sister worlds transit across the face of the Sun, captured in multiple wavelengths by the Solar Dynamics Observatory.

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NASA Visualization Explorer, v.1.5 (for iPad)