Ever wondered what an astronaut really does all day? Curious about zero-g hygiene? Want to know what someone on the International Space Station (ISS) thinks should happen to the ISS?
Then you should ask! The crew members of the next shuttle mission (pictured at right), scheduled to launch August 25, announced they will answer some of your YouTube-submitted questions during their time on the ISS. Submit a question in English or Spanish.
One of the astronauts, Jose Hernandez, is also tweeting (bilingually!) about his training experiences @Astro_Jose. And, NASA being the boundary-breakers they are, current ISS crew member Col. Tim Kopra just sent the first tweet from space today (see it and the rest of his tweets @Astro_Tim).
This upcoming mission is the 128th shuttle flight (hence the mission name of STS-128), one of the last before the shuttles retire in 2010 with STS-134. It will bring the ISS a new crew member, take one home (Col. Kopra), and deliver other supplies including the famed COLBERT treadmill.
Over the years, I’ve noticed NASA actually seems to know how to use social media well. Unlike CNN’s almost comical use of technology (useless holograms and reading aloud the tweets of users called Talkingship and maggiepoo), NASA routinely provides relevant and interesting information we otherwise would have no way of getting.
The Mars Phoenix’s updates (written in first person @MARSPHOENIX) provided a particularly great way to get younger folks involved while keeping the rest of us up to date on the mission.
By soliciting YouTube questions, NASA will not only provide more interesting content for us, but will also get (at least some of) us directly involved, making us active participants. While it may just be preaching to the choir of NASA-lovers, I bet this’ll spark the curiosity of at least some currently indifferent folks out there, and anything that turns people on to NASA and space is a good thing in my book.
What do you think of NASA’s uses of various social media? Are you going to ask the astronauts anything?
And don't forget, you can follow Astronomy magazine on Twitter @AstronomyMag, too.
Credit: NASA/JSC