A World A'Twitter

July 01, 2008

Curious what’s happening on Mars? No need to comb the net looking for news. NASA’s newest robot probe will phone you with its updates.

Phoenix, which is busily analyzing ice and soil samples from Mars’ northern polar cap, is using the social networking site Twitter to text-message the science-minded about its progress. Apparently, more than 27,000 folks are following Phoenix’s words, which can flash across your cell phone, pop up in your Instant Messaging program or passively wait to be read on its Twitter homepage.

Hungry for a direct outreach to the public, NASA has given more than a dozen machines a virtual life. Among Phoenix’s colleagues on Twitter are LRO (Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter) which hasn’t even left the ground yet, the Hubble Space Telescope, the new gamma ray observatory GLAST and the space shuttles Atlantis , Discovery and Endeavour. Even space shuttle missions are incarnating.

It’s not just the ‘droids who are coming into their ‘lectronic lives. Apparently blogs are Twitter-fodder too so I took the plunge and signed up Free Space. At least I think I did. I’m waiting for my cell phone to ring to let me know if I’ve posted or not.

Comments

[Benjamin Higginbotham]

I think it is worth mentioning that ssDiscovery, ssAtlantis, ssEndeavour and STS1XX are actually not run by NASA but by myself at www.spacevidcast.com. I try and get you as much info as possible while giving the orbiters a personality all their own.

Other Twiter accounts *are* run by NASA. Not sure if it matters, but I wanted to be sure everyone knew that.

[Dave Mosher]

Cool, thanks Benjamin. Also, some of the spacecraft make an appearance on Facebook - check it out in a note I put up on the Discovery Space page:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Discovery-Space/16015888339

[Douglas Pankretz]

Greetings;

I am interested in finding research on the fractal features of space.
If Frame Dragging is good in theory; the gravitational field of space should have a fractal feature that extends from the center of our galaxy to the surface of our planet. This would help to explain some of the high and low weather patterns.

Seriously, Douglas Pankretz

[i love penisth]

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