July 18, 2011

Dwayne Brown/Guy Webster Headquarters, Washington/Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Calif 202-358-1726/818-354-6278 dwayne c brown@nasa gov/guy webster@jpl nasa gov

Isabel Lara National Air and Space Museum, Washington 202-633-2374 laral@si edu

MEDIA ADVISORY: M11-147

NASA ANNOUNCING LANDING SITE FOR NEW MARS ROVER

WASHINGTON -- NASA and the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum will host a news conference at 10 a m EDT, Friday, July 22 to announce the selected landing site for the agency's latest Mars rover The event will be in the museum's Moving Beyond Earth Gallery NASA Television and the agency's Web site will provide live coverage of the event

Participating in the news conference: -- John Grant, geologist, Smithsonian Air and Space Museum National, Washington -- Michael Meyer, Mars Exploration Program lead scientist, NASA Headquarters, Washington -- John Grotzinger, MSL project scientist, Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Pasadena, Calif -- Dawn Sumner, geologist, UC Davis, Calif -- Michael Watkins, MSL project engineer, JPL

To participate, reporters must contact Isabel Lara at larai@si edu by 4 p m EDT Thursday, July 21

The Mars Science Laboratory (MSL), or Curiosity, will land on the surface of Mars in August 2012 Curiosity is being assembled and readied for a November launch at NASA's Kennedy Space Center, Florida Curiosity is about twice as long and more than five times as heavy as any previous Mars rover The rover will study whether the landing region had environmental conditions favorable for supporting microbial life and for preserving clues about whether life existed

July 22 is Mars Day at the museum The annual event marks the July 1976 landing of Viking 1, the first spacecraft to operate on Mars The day will feature displays, family activities and presentations by scientists from the museum's Center for Earth and Planetary Studies, the Museum of Natural History and NASA Visitors will learn about the latest Mars research, missions and see a life-size model of Curiosity

For NASA TV streaming video, scheduling and downlink information, visit:

http://www nasa gov/ntv

-end-

To subscribe to the list, send a message to: hqnews-subscribe@mediaservices nasa gov To remove your address from the list, send a message to: hqnews-unsubscribe@mediaservices nasa gov

The following information is a reminder of your current mailing list subscription:

You are subscribed to the following list: [list_name]

using the following email: example@example.com

You may automatically unsubscribe from this list at any time by visiting the following URL:

https://aus-city com/cgi-bin/dada/mail cgi/u/NASA_REPORTS/example/example com/

If the above URL is inoperable, make sure that you have copied the entire address Some mail readers will wrap a long URL and thus break this automatic unsubscribe mechanism

You may also change your subscription by visiting this list's main screen:

<[program_url]/list/[list]>

If you're still having trouble, please contact the list owner at:

<mailto:[list_owner_email]>

The following physical address is associated with this mailing list:

[physical_address]