Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech

After years of planning & construction, a voyage of millions of miles since it’s launch in November 2011, the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) otherwise know as the Curiosity rover will be attempting to land in Gale Crater on Mars tonight (tomorrow morning 05:31 UTC)

You can find out tons of great information about this car sized rover and its unusual landing method at numerous locations across the net. From NASA’s 7 Minutes of Terror: Curiosity Rover’s Risky Mars Landing video, to Emily Lakdawalla’s excellent post over at Nerdist and her videos about the rover itself.

There are several live feeds tonight as we all wait to see if the rover lands successfully.

• NASA TV
• JPL’s Ustream
• The Planetary Society Planetfest
• CosmoQuest Google+ Hangout (I plan to be here, and I hear Susie is also)
• Eyes on the Solar System (NASA/JPL) has what looks to be a nice live feed as well.

You can also follow the action on twitter #MSL

- Laith

UPDATE 1:15am CT 8/6: When I posted this initially it was 9:30pm CT and we had three hours to wait and see if the landing was a success. I am pleased to update that at around 12:17am Curiosity landed successfully on Mars and confirmation was received shortly after the half hour. Within minutes the first photos from the low-resolution obstacle cameras at the wheels were arriving back at earth. We live in an amazing time.

First Photo (via @MarsCuriosity)

Rover Shadow (@MarsCuriosity)

Update 2 (By Susie): Here’s a great article by Emily Lakdawalla of The Planetary Society about the landing over at Nerdist! And here’s where to watch the mission briefings from NASA – http://www.ustream.tv/NASAJPL