Emily LakdawallaJul 30, 2012

Press briefing schedule for Curiosity (assuming a nominal landing)

It was with great relief that I received a message from JPL regarding the press briefing schedule for Curiosity. This assumes a nominal landing -- but any off-nominal situation would be a modification to this schedule. I finally have something to base my childcare schedule on. I am one, or maybe two, iotas less stressed about the landing now. Here's the schedule.

The JPL Newsroom will open at 9 a.m. on Aug. 1. Newsroom operating hours, subject to change, are (all times PDT):

  • Wednesday, Aug. 1 -- 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
  • Thursday, Aug. 2 -- 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
  • Friday, Aug. 3 -- 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.
  • Saturday, Aug. 4 -- 8:30 a.m. to 7 p.m.
  • Sunday, Aug. 5 -- 8:30 a.m. to round-the-clock
  • Monday, Aug. 6 -- round-the-clock to 7 p.m.
  • Tuesday, Aug. 7 -- 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.
  • Wednesday, Aug. 8 -- 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.
  • Thursday, Aug. 9 -- 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.
  • Friday, Aug. 10 -- 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.

News briefing and televised event schedule:

Date/time (PDT)Date/time (UTC)Event
Aug 2 10:00Aug 2 17:00Mission Science Overview News Briefing
Aug 2 11:00Aug 2 18:00Mission Engineering Overview News Briefing
Aug 4 09:30Aug 4 16:30Prelanding Update
EDL Overview News Briefing
Aug 5 09:30Aug 5 16:30Final Prelanding Update News Briefing
Aug 5 15:00Aug 5 22:00NASA Science News Briefing
Aug 5 20:30~23:00Aug 6 03:30~06:00Landing Commentary No. 1
Aug 5 No earlier than 23:15Aug 6 NET 06:15Post-landing News Briefing
Aug 6 00:30Aug 6 07:30Landing Commentary No. 2
Aug 6 09:00Aug 6 16:00Landing Recap News Briefing
Aug 6 16:00Aug 6 23:00Possible New Images News Briefing
Aug 7 10:00Aug 7 17:00News Briefing
Aug 8 10:00Aug 8 17:00News Briefing
Aug 9 10:00Aug 9 17:00News Briefing
Aug 10 10:00Aug 10 17:00News Briefing

Note that they settle down to a 10:00 a.m. Pacific time press briefing daily as soon as they can. Once upon a time, this would have irked me, as I know that the Mars calendar shifts with respect to the Earth calendar such that this would make sense one day but less sense a week or two later. Now, though, when the Earth calendar rules my life no matter what's happening on Mars, it's a relief. I must be getting old!

In case you're curious what's going on with time on Mars after Curiosity lands, here's a couple of data points (Thanks, Sarah!):

Landing will happen at 22:31 Pasadena / 05:31 UTC / 15:02 LST (Local Solar Time at Gale Crater) (give or take a couple minutes)

No matter what time landing occurs, sol 1 at Gale will begin at 2012-219T07:29:34 PDT or 14:29:34 UTC

Since it's late, and I'm tired, I will leave to a reader the task of taking that datum and calculating approximately when the rover will receive commands (uplink) and return data (downlink) each day....

Take action for space exploration!

Give today to have your gift matched up to $75,000.

Donate