How to Experience the Curiosity Rover’s Mars Landing Online

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NASA / JPL-Caltech

Back in 2004 when Spirit and Opportunity landed in Mars, YouTube didn’t even exist. This time around, keeping up with NASA’s Martian exploits online will be a lot easier.

At 1:30am EDT on Monday, Curiosity will attempt to land on Mars — no easy task as NASA’s “Seven Minutes of Terror” video shows. If you want to really celebrate, you can head to  Times Square to watch it on the giant Toshiba Vision Screen or catch it at any one of these events across the country.

(FOLLOW-UP: Curiosity Takes Center Stage as Crowds Cheer in Times Square)

Most of you, however, will probably be watching it while half-asleep at home. Luckily NASA is making it pretty easy to follow along. You can watch a live-stream of all of the action right here, which we assume will involve NASA scientists doing the “Running Man” after Curiosity safely touches down.

If you feel like virtually hanging out with other space enthusiasts, you can join the Mars Curiosity Landing Google+ Hangout, hosted by the SETI Institute at NASA’s Ames Research Center in Northern California.

It will also be on NASA TV, just in case you subscribe to the every-channel-in-the-universe cable tier. You can also follow NASA’s Curiosity rover on Facebook and Twitter, which includes such gems as:

For that old-timey feeling, gather around a roaring fire and listen to an audio broadcast of the landing on Third Rock Radio: “It’s radio powered by NASA,” which, I discovered, consists of mediocre ’90s alt-rock during off-hours.

If you need to do something like, say, sleep on Sunday night, know that you won’t be missing any stunning images.

According to NBCNews.com, Curiosity’s camera-equipped mast won’t be raised until later in the week, meaning we’ll have to do with 64-by-64-pixel black-and-white photos before its camera can start beaming the better quality two-megapixel color photos back to Earth.

MORE: Neil deGrasse Tyson on the Future of U.S. Space Exploration After Curiosity