Welcome to the monthly roundup of our Solar System's envoy of electronic explorers!

All human eyes are focused on the Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity as it completes its eight-month journey to Mars this Monday. In a span of ten minutes, the rover will discard its cruise stage, plunge through the planet's atmosphere, deploy a supersonic parachute, discard its heat shield, separate from its backshell, and be lowered by a rocket-powered Sky Crane onto the Martian soil.

If all goes well, landing at Gale crater should occur August 6th at 5:31 UTC; that's August 6th 1:31AM EDT / August 5th 10:31PM PDT here in the United States. To read dozens of past articles on the subject, you can browse the Curiosity-MSL keyword on The Planetary Society's website. If you're near Pasadena, we hope you'll come out to Planetfest and watch the drama unfold with us!

Good luck, Curiosity! On to the rest of the Solar System.