Where were you one year ago? NASA's Curiosity rover was getting settled on the surface of Mars — and snapping its first color pictures. Meanwhile, the scientists and engineers on the Mars Science Laboratory's team were wrapping their heads around the task of exploring the Red Planet with a mobile lab as big as an SUV. And the rest of us were basking in the wonder of it all.
Join us for a look back at the first year of Curiosity's mission, and a look ahead at what's to come, on Wednesday's edition of "Virtually Speaking Science." The talk show gets started at 8 p.m. ET, online via Blog Talk Radio and in the Exploratorium's auditorium in the Second Life virtual world.
Our guests include the Curiosity mission's deputy project scientist, Joy Crisp of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory; and Doug Turnbull, host of Mars Pirate Radio. You can sit around the virtual campfire and reminisce about those crazy seven minutes of terror on Aug. 5-6, 2012, and find out more about what's in store for the six-wheeled explorer.
If you miss the live show, never fear: You can always catch up with the podcast that'll be archived on Blog Talk Radio and iTunes. Got questions or comments? Tweet 'em to us by using the hashtag #askVS, or use the call-in number that's listed on this webpage.
Here's a list of our previous "Virtually Speaking Science" episodes:
- James Oberg on Apollo 11's legacy
- SETI Institute's Seth Shostak on aliens in the movies
- Brian Switek on dinosaur fact and fiction
- George Djorgovski on the Internet and education
- Doug Griffith and Taber MacCallum on moon and Mars trips
- Sean Carroll and Matt Strassler on physics' X Files
- Ig Nobel's Marc Abrahams on weird science in 2012
- Paul Doherty on Curiosity and the year in science
- Shawn Lawrence Otto on climate change and the 2012 election
- Sean Carroll on what lies beyond the Higgs boson
- Alan Stern on the Uwingu mystery space venture
- George Djorgovski on the future of immersive virtual reality
- JPL's Dave Beaty previews Curiosity's mission on Mars
- SETI Institute's Seth Shostak about aliens and UFOs
- Paul Doherty on solar eclipses and the transit of Venus
- Veronica Ann Zabala-Aliberto on spaceflight and Yuri's Night
- JPL's Dave Beaty on the search for life on Mars
- Shawn Lawrence Otto on science and politics
- Ig Nobel impresario Marc Abrahams on silly science in 2011
- Rocket scientist Robert Zubrin on Mars exploration
- Propulsion expert Marc Millis on interstellar spaceflight
- Sean Carroll on the puzzles facing physicists
- Rand Simberg on the private-enterprise vision for spaceflight
- Martin Hoffert on the future of energy policy
- George Djorgovski on science in virtual worlds
- Alan Stern on suborbital research and NASA's mission to Pluto
- Col. 'Coyote' Smith on the outlook for space solar power
- Tim Pickens on rocket ventures and the Google Lunar X Prize
Alan Boyle is NBCNews.com's science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the NBC News Science Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter and adding +Alan Boyle to your Google+ circles. To keep up with NBCNews.com's stories about science and space, sign up for the Tech & Science newsletter, delivered to your email in-box every weekday. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.