A Ton of Eyes on Comet Flyby of Mars

I'm kind of hoping the comet hits Mars but it is still cool how close a shave it will give the Red Planet.

The space agency has already trained a number of its science assets on Comet Siding Spring, which will zoom within 87,000 miles (139,500 kilometers) of Mars on Oct. 19 — about one-third the distance between Earth and the moon. And NASA's fleet of Red Planet orbiters and rovers will be watching on the big day, studying the comet and its influence on Mars' atmosphere.

It seems we have a ton of eyes on Siding Spring as well.

But the real show will begin Oct. 19. NASA's three Mars orbiters — Mars Odyssey, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) and the newly arrived MAVEN spacecraft — will observe Siding Spring's flyby from space, while the agency's Opportunity and Curiosity rovers will watch from the Red Planet's surface.

It's pretty cool that Opportunity and Curiosity are getting in on the act as well. That will be the first time a comet will be photographed from the surface of a planet that is not the Earth.