United Launch Alliance and Aerojet support nationwide campaign surrounding Mars exploration

The ‘Get Curious’ campaign launches today with the support of United Launch Alliance (ULA), Explore Mars, a nonprofit organization promoting innovation and education aimed at making a human mission to Mars happen sooner, and Aerojet. The campaign encourages the public to ‘Get Curious’ and visit GetCurious.com, where they can learn more about the landing of the Mars rover ‘Curiosity,’ the benefits of space exploration and the unique financial and educational opportunities that exploring Mars will bring to the United States and the rest of the world.

NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory, on board ‘Curiosity,’ will make its descent onto the Red Planet on the evening of Aug. 5. Curiosity began its eight-month journey in November 2011 and is set to land that night at 10:30 pm PDT/12:31 am CDT/1:31 am EDT.

“The potential knowledge we could gain from Curiosity’s exploration is tremendous,” Explore Mars Executive Director Chris Carberry said. “We have an opportunity to learn if life once could have existed or could still exist on Mars. A successful MSL mission will also move us one step closer to the goal of putting humans on Mars by 2030.”

Curiosity is the largest mobile science laboratory to date; it will analyze the atmospheric history of Mars, examine radiation, interpret geological processes, look for the building blocks of life, and conduct many other science experiments. Explore Mars will continue to provide educational information, mission highlights and laboratory findings as they come in and for several months after the landing to educate the public about the mission.

“As an organization that proudly serves our country’s space launch needs, United Launch Alliance (ULA) understands the social and economic importance of this mission to Mars,” said Michael Gass, ULA’s President and CEO. “ULA is excited to participate in the ‘Get Curious’ campaign. We hope the campaign will inspire people, raise awareness and increase public support for future launches to continue to explore our universe.”

The ‘Get Curious’ campaign’s website, GetCurious.com, will host a range of information and activities including a landing countdown ticker, a map of local ‘landing parties,’ educational materials, photos, videos and information from partners such as ULA, Aerojet, National Geographic, the National Institute of Aerospace, Yuri’s Night and a plethora of social media activity.

Science and astronomy groups, organizations and individuals across the nation are encouraged to plan local watch parties at restaurants, pubs, universities, planetariums and other venues to join space enthusiasts around the world. The NASA channel and a live streaming video will be available at www.nasa.gov/ntv as the rover touches down. Party organizers can register their event at www.GetCurious.com/parties. All events will be added to an interactive party map allowing interested people in the area to join local parties. Photos, discussions and locations of parties can also be tracked on Twitter using #MarsParties.

Additionally, an eight-city, nationwide exhibit will launch on July 26 to promote the campaign. More information will be released on that day and will be available on the campaign website.

On the “Curiosity Kids” section of the webpage, students, parents and teachers will be able to explore STEM education information about Mars and America’s innovations in space exploration.

For more information about Curiosity, the Get Curious campaign, partners, and to learn how to become involved please visit www.GetCurious.com.

About Explore Mars

Explore Mars is a 501(c) (3) non-profit organization that was created to advance the goal of sending humans to Mars within the next two decades. To further that goal, Explore Mars conducts programs and technical challenges to stimulate the development and/or improvement of technologies that will make human Mars missions more efficient and feasible. In addition, to embed the idea of Mars as a habitable planet, Explore Mars challenges educators to use Mars in the classroom as a tool to teach standard STEM curricula. You can contact us using our website www.exploremars.org or at the email address info@ExploreMars.org. Follow Explore Mars on Twitter at www.twitter.com/exploremars and Facebook at www.facebook.com/exploremarsdotorg.

About United Launch Alliance

Formed in December 2006, United Launch Alliance (ULA) is a 50-50 joint venture owned by Lockheed Martin and The Boeing Company. ULA brings together two of the launch industry’s most experienced and successful teams – Atlas and Delta – to provide reliable, cost-efficient space launch services for the U.S. government. U.S. government launch customers include the Department of Defense, NASA, the National Reconnaissance Office and other organizations.

For more information on ULA, visit the ULA Web site at www.ulalaunch.com, or call the ULA Launch Hotline at 1-877-ULA-4321 (852-4321). Join the conversation at www.facebook.com/ulalaunch and twitter.com/ulalaunch.

Contact:
Phillips & Company
Stephen Rodriguez, 512-296-7225
srrodriguez@phillipscompany.com