William Shatner and Wil Wheaton Explain the Mars Curiosity Rover in NASA Videos

On August 5, NASA’s Curiosity will makes its landing on Mars. The event will mark the end of the journey and the start of the mission of exploration for the Mini Cooper-sized rover. To help explain the descent and landing sequence, the space agency has once again tapped a Star Trek legend—William Shatner. It’s the continuation of a long-time relationship between Shatner and NASA, but this time they’ve also brought in the voice talents of another Trek icon, Wil Wheaton. In separate videos, the generation-spanning William and Wil take us through Curiosity’s “Grand Entrance” and its mission to find out if life ever existed on the Red Planet.

Watch the two videos below and let us know whose narration you like best.

Shatner

Wheaton

LeVar Burton On The Verge

LeVar Burton is one of our favorite actors from Star Trek, and he recently sat down with Joshua Topolsky on an episode of On The Verge to talk about a range of topics. Up for discussion were his new Reading Rainbow app for iPad, what it’s like to be an Internet Meme, and of course his iconic role as Lt. Commander Geordi La Forge. It’s an excellent interview and highlights both the humor and the intellect of Burton that makes him not only an inspiration for Star Trek fans, but for generations of children as well.

Watch the full interview below, and find more great interviews at http://youtube.com/TheVerge.

Star Trek Online Unveils No-Win Scenario

In his latest dev blog entry, Star Trek Online Lead Content Designer Scott “Goatshark” Shicoff revealed some information about a new event coming to the game: The No-Win Scenario. And while Captain Kirk reprogrammed the computer so that it was possible to rescue the ship, you may not be so lucky.

In this event, captains will be put to the test as they take on wave after wave of enemy attacks. And like the Kobayashi Maru, it’s a simulation—thanks to the Holodeck training program. Still, you’ll want to win and the way to achieve this goal is by defeating the 10th and final wave.

A number of player awards are yours for the taking if you conquer the No-Win Scenario, and you can play by using the PvE Queue to join public or private queues. The event is available any time, but special dates and times that carry additional special awards will be announced as well.

No-Win Scenario will launch alongside STO Season 6: “Under Siege” and is available to both Federation and Klingon players. The event is designed for five-person groups and you must be a Vice Admiral or Lieutenant General to participate.

You can read the full blog entry on the STO website here.

Below is a look at the various locales, battles, and action you’ll find throughout Star Trek Online.

GeekBeat.TV Presents Trek Techs That Came True

Each day our lives are made easier by amazing technologies—many of which seemed like fantasy a mere decade ago. We have Star Trek to thank for inspiring the creation of everything from the cell phone to the iPad to the barrel roll.

OK. Maybe that last one has been around longer. And it isn’t even tech. But the point is that Star Trek has served as a blue print for our technological future. Now GeekBeat.TV and Cali Lewis have assembled a list of Star Trek techs that came true.

Think Romulan cloaking or VISORs don’t exist? Check out the videos below to find out just what the real world has in store for us. You can find more great tech- and geek-related news each day from Cali at GeekBeat.TV.