It’s not easy getting to Mars. I mean, the planet’s nearly 35 million miles away, it’s not like it’s a quick 224,000 mile trip to the moon (either way, NASA makes it all seem like a breeze). But regardless of the struggle, the United States will be landing on the planet at 1:31 AM, completing what NASA is calling the “most important […] mission of the decade.”

The pre-programmed landing is no piece of cake, either. It’s actually one of the riskiest ever attempted since the spacecraft will be traveling at speeds around 13,200 mph (they’re calling the attempt to land a full “7 minutes of terror”).

If all goes well, we can expect to see some footage from the Curiosity travels, but it could take days or even weeks for them to deliver (which being 35 million miles away, that’s expected).

We have yet to see any sort of martian life on the strange planet, but for some reason Mars keeps calling scientists back with more and more clues revealing how Mars was in fact once habitable…

(via The Washington Post; photo via Futurity)