We have a double-header of science goodness coming up to perk up your Wednesday slump.

First, Emily Lakdawalla of the Planetary Society will be hosting the Weekly Science Hour at 4 PDT/7 EDT (23 UT). She’s chatting with Ravi Prakash about Curiosity, specifically the Entry, Descent, and Landing (EDL to the acronym-happy NASA folks). With the landing scheduled for August 6th for Curiosity, or Mars Science Lander, they’ll explain this unique landing system which involves a skycrane. Yes, really. SKYCRANE. Welcome to the future, everyone! I don’t even know what that means, but it looks pretty cool in simulations. So tune in tonight on Google+ to learn more.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BudlaGh1A0o&w=560&h=315]

But wait… there’s more! Pamela Gay will be giving a talk tonight, streaming online from MyMoon about, you guessed it, Earth’s favorite natural satellite. This one starts at 5 PDT/8 EDT, so queue it up right after the Weekly Science Hour. If you have been working with or are interested in MoonMappers, this is definitely for you. Get involved in citizen science right now! It’s fun, productive, and strangely addicting. No, seriously. I’m supposed to be working on video tutorials for it and I just get sucked into crater finding… Anyway. Watch the talk tonight and you’ll see why. (Also, they have the coolest advertisement.)

See you there!