“I find it frightening that the first alien contact we might make could be a tweet.”
Truer words have never been spoken by a YouTube commenter.
NASA astronaut Mark Polansky, who will be commanding the next mission to the International Space Station, has just posted a video to NASA’s official YouTube channel inviting YouTubers and Twitter fans to take part in his next mission, submitting video questions via YouTube and following mission updates over Twitter.
To ask a question, Polansky says to create a video of around thirty seconds and post it to YouTube, then send it to his Twitter account using an @reply. He’ll respond to the questions on NASA TV, which is broadcast nation-wide.
Polansky won’t actually be the first person to Tweet from space – that title will likely belong to Mike Massimino, who plans to Tweet from Space Shuttle Atlantis, which embarks on mission STS-125 in less than three days.
NASA has recently been making a big push in using modern consumer technology, the web, and social sites to reach a broader audience. Yesterday it launched a collection of very impressive Photosynth galleries of the ISS and Mars Rover. And they have more exciting releases in the works. This is something that is long overdue – the public may not be as enamored of space missions as it was a few decades ago, but the feats these astronauts are undertaking are no less impressive. And frankly I’d much rather follow the updates of true heroes than yet another celebrity on Twitter.
Still, I can’t help but wonder if alien races will stumble across the tweets and conclude that our brains are only capable of interpreting 140 characters at a time.
Totally agree with the last line.
Great to see NASA reaching out to the public, lets see how the public responds.
I am really excited about these things. NASA Tv is usually a bust, so this will add a good amount of freshness to their line-up.
It seems they really have been trying lately. Over at Giz (sry crunchers) they even have a week long guest blog and series of related stuff from Astronaut Leroy Chiao writing from the ISS!
Obama is on board with a 5% increase for the 2010 prelim NASA budget.
Sciences are so important. We are probably living in the best and most exciting time to ever be alive on Earth to date, and I know that we need to further embrace that, and that the people who choose to be an active part of society need to focus less on their idols and mindless distractions, and more on the reasons we are here. We are here to discover things; we are here to learn and to create, and to see and experience as much as we possibly can while we are still alive as individuals, and as a species. Kill your TV. Be amazed by something new everyday, because you can and it is one of the most enriching experiences you can get for free outside of human emotion.
Ramble over – sorry for comment jack. Go NASA & ISS!!
there was a market where twitter is now.
sooner facebook opens up status updates better for users, if not for fb. There should be radio button to select if fb status message is either for only friends or for all public.
Sometimes less is more.
You Wrote:
“Polansky won’t actually be the first person to Tweet from space…”
um, it’s ALL space, there’s nothing else!
Pam Hoffman
http://seminarl...st.blogspot.com
http//twitter.com/PamHoffman
Ha … and just when I said that space needs PR help
http://www.gary...s-some-pr-help/
(sorry for the sameless plug, seemed relevant)
SOme of us have been talking @Astro_Mike into this for months. He has faithfully updated us (and school kids) on many steps of preparation.
Right now he’s flying his T-38 back
LOL…. @ “Still, I can’t help but wonder if alien races will stumble across the tweets and conclude that our brains are only capable of interpreting 140 characters at a time.”
I used to be skeptical about Twitter’s usefulness, but being about to follow astronauts in space is just awesome.
@MissionCommand this is @BuzzLightyear, to infinity and beyond #nasa
Twitter is like a breath of fresh air on the Social Media scene. I have been on it for just a few weeks now and I have met several interesting people. It is a platform to network with people you would like to meet in real life.
KZ
http://ePostMailer.com
The space shuttle is truly one of man’s greatest accomplishments!!! I found this interesting video on the launch of Atlantis; definitely worth a look:
http://www.news..._hubble_repair/
You were actually able to watch all of the leadup and post coverage to the launch live as it was happening today on NASA.gov and NASA TV; something we will continue to see mroe adn more of from NASA it seems
YAY
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