There is growing buzz spreading about a manned 2018 private mission to Mars.  The organization responsible for this rumor is the Inspiration Mars Foundation, led by millionaire Dennis Tito, also the world's first space tourist.  A press conference is to be held on February 27th to officially announce a 501-day roundtrip mission launching in 2018.

NASA scientists are puzzled over strange unusual spherical rock formations on Mars in an image taken by the Opportunity rover.

One of the first images from the Curiosity rover from NASA TV. The rover's wheel is in the lower right corner.

Eight years in planning and eight months in travel, NASA's Mars Science Laboratory landed safely on Mars, resulting in cheers from the NASA team and showing once again the true grit of American ingenuity and determination.  The landing happened around 1:32 a.m. EDT.  The Curiosity rover later sent the first images from the Gale Crater after landing.

As we near closer and closer to the landing, there are some places you can watch the event unfold live as it happens at 1:30 a.m. EDT and before the landing as well.  NASA will attempt to lower the largest rover yet, on Mars and search for signs of water and past life.

NASA TV

NASA on YouTube

NASA TV in HD via UStream

Boldly listen to narration of the Mars landing like no one has done before.  Touchdown of Curiosity is scheduled for August 6th at 1:31 a.m. EDT.  NASA's Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity Rover will make one of the most complex and dangerous landings ever attempted by a spacecraft.  Previous versions of spacecrafts have used airbag type landings but due to the immense size of Curiosity it is using a multi-stage landing in its seven minutes of terror.  To help make the public aware of this mission, NASA has produced two videos to inform the world about the mission, narrated by William Shatner and Wil Wheaton.  Both videos are the same, just the narrators differ.  You decide TOS or TNG.

If you are getting excited for the forthcoming Mars Curiosity rover landing and the Seven Minutes of Terror that will precede the touchdown, then head over to your Xbox 360 and get Mars Rover Landing.  The free game requires a Kinect Motion controller and will test your skills on safely landing the Curiosity rover.

Previously we outlined the details of NASA's Curiosity rover mission to Mars.  We are now inching closer to the August 5th landing.  This landing will be the most intense planetary landing in the history of space travel.  It is also so unique and technically ambitious that even NASA engineers have called it crazy.  They say this mainly because its incredible.  The video below outlines why NASA engineers call the seven minutes to descend Mars in this landing as the "Seven Minutes of Terror."

With all the current buzz related to Space and exploration, none really have definitive plans to set up a colony on Mars.  Enter a new private space venture called Mars One, a company from the Netherlands.  They aim to send four astronauts on a one way trip to Mars in just 11 years.