Phoenix Outreach, ... or "That's the way to do it..." Options

[Stu]

I have a sneaking suspicion that more than a few of the various Phoenix teams lurk here... and are probably reading these very pages right now when they really, really should be DOING SOME WORK!!! ... so I just wanted to point out what a superb job they've done and are still doing as far as Outreach is concerned. The quality of the animations and graphics, so soon into the mission, is simply outstanding, and the speed with which the raw images are posted is obviously great for all us armchair image manipulators, but it's also great for the public too, because we can point them towards the Phoenix websites and tell them, truthfully, that all they want to know about the mission is there for them to read, put in simple and understandable terms. There are also postcards and posters to download.

A special - and IMHO - long overdue congratulations has to go to Veronica McGregor, who we have often seen during NASA TV coverage of Phoenix press briefings. For those who don't know, Veronica is behind the Phoenix Twitter page, which now has over 18,000 (18,000!!!!) followers. When I say "behind", I mean, of course, that she is in contact with the probe itself, and takes the time to send it questions and write up its responses in "Twitter-ese"; the New York Times erroneously reported that Veronica actually writes the Twitter entries, and not Phoenix itself. Now there's "inaccuracy in reporting astronomy" for you...

Having said that, I am less than convinced that "Steve The Cat" was a good idea. The idea is fun, and the site itself is too, but... well... a cat? Stuck on Mars? ( For those who don't know, Phoenix has a stowaway, in the form of a cat called Steve. Steve is living inside Phoenix as it explores the martian arctic, and has even sent back a message for his followers and supporters here on Earth.) I mentioned this idea once during a pre-landing Outreach talk. Once. Never again. I could see small children getting visibly upset at the idea of a poor liddle puddy cat stranded on Mars... I have just seen that Steve actually has a way of getting back to Earth, so maybe there's been a bit of a re-think about the first cat-o-naut on Mars somewhere! And if Phoenix does find evidence of life on Mars, I'm not sure how they're going to be sure it's native martian life when this was allowed to happen...

Seriously tho, the Outreach support for this mission is great. I gave my first post-landing Phoenix public Outreach talk last Saturday morning here in Kendal, at the town's museum, and thanks to the Phoenix Outreach team I was able to hand out free Phoenix stickers to the 20 or so people who came along to see the first Phoenix images and hear all about the mission. I was also able to give them a long list of website addresses to keep an eye on after the talk.

Great work guys, keep it up!

[Stu]

Thought someone should point out - and celebrate - the fact that Phoenix's Twitter page has just passed the 35,000 followers mark. That's a stunning achievement! Well done!

[Paolo Amoroso]

Thought someone should point out - and celebrate - the fact that Phoenix's Twitter page has just passed the 35,000 followers mark. That's a stunning achievement! Well done!

Interestingly, the about 5,000 CERN Twitter feed followers, despite extensive media coverage and hype around LHC, are an order of magnitude less than those of MarsPhoenix.


Paolo Amoroso

[Paolo Amoroso]

Having said that, I am less than convinced that "Steve The Cat" was a good idea. The idea is fun, and the site itself is too, but... well... a cat?

What's wrong with cats doing rocket science or going into space?


Paolo Amoroso

[dmuller]

I've always said that going to Mars is rocket science, telling people about it can be as simple as using twitter

Interestingly, the about 5,000 CERN Twitter feed followers, despite extensive media coverage and hype around LHC, are an order of magnitude less than those of MarsPhoenix.

Maybe not may people expect to receive messages from within a black hole

[aggieastronaut]

What made me upset is they disabled my Phoenix Facebook profile on sol 100. I finally heard back from them today and they offered to transfer everything to a page (so everyone is no longer friends with Phoenix... only fans... ) I suppose it's a better response than "Haha you fail, you'll never be able to do outreach!" and they'll save me a lot of work by transferring everything. But still, there's something neat about saying you're friends with a spacecraft...

[Stu]

What made me upset is they disabled my Phoenix Facebook profile on sol 100. I finally heard back from them today

Who are "they", Aggie? Facebook? NASA?

Seems... oh, what's the word I'm looking for...? Hang on, it'll come to me in a minute...

Ah, got it.

STUPID!!!

The more places there are for people to show their interest in and support for Phoenix, the better, I say.

[aggieastronaut]

Who are "they", Aggie? Facebook? NASA?

Ah, I suppose that'd be help! "They" being Facebook. The person behind the Solar Dynamics Observatory's profile is quite upset over this too and is looking to potentially get the NASA higher ups to talk to them to allow the missions to keep the profiles. LRO's deputy project manager (who runs LRO's profile) is saying the same thing.

And because I'm Texan, I have the right to change the "Don't mess with Texas" phrase to "Don't mess with NASA's EPO office."

Oh, and I should mention that because of Phoenix's profile, tons of other missions are now able to outreach in this way and it's showing the higher ups of NASA that social networking is a GREAT way to reach out to the younger generation. LRO's deputy project manager keeps bragging to higher ups about me because of this and has sworn up and down she's going to steal me from Mark.

[Aussie]

I wasn't sure that 'Stupid' was the right word until I looked it up and found that it means (amongst other things) 'Tending to make poor decisions or careless mistakes'.

But why did they do such a stupid thing?

[Paolo Amoroso]

What made me upset is they disabled my Phoenix Facebook profile on sol 100.

I'm not a Facebook user and I don't know what happened. Did you have an unofficial Phoenix profile that was disabled by Facebook?


Paolo Amoroso

[Guest_PhilCo126_*]

Now let's just hope the Phoenix Lander will prove to be a strong & tough machine so we'll be able to enjoy those fews for a long time

[aggieastronaut]

I'm not a Facebook user and I don't know what happened. Did you have an unofficial Phoenix profile that was disabled by Facebook?


Paolo Amoroso

I ran an endorsed one.

[Stu]

I ran an endorsed one.

So have you been given any reasons for the page being taken down? Do you think that it would help if the UMSF members on Facebook (how many are there? I wonder...) all emailed complaints to Facebook?

[Del Palmer]

People can lose their Facebook account for the dumbest of reasons. A friend of mine lost over 150 friends in a recent Facebook crackdown. Their crime against humanity? They had an image of a dog as their profile picture...

[dmuller]

So, then, why dont we create Spacebook?

[aggieastronaut]

I was given the reason that Phoenix was an "inanimate object" therefore it violated their policy that Facebook profiles are for humans only. I do say though, Phoenix is anything but inanimate!

And a Spacebook would be awesome!

[Stu]

I was given the reason that Phoenix was an "inanimate object" therefore it violated their policy that Facebook profiles are for humans only. I do say though, Phoenix is anything but inanimate!

Stupid stupid stupid. And inconsistent too. LCROSS, Hubble and New Horizons all have Profiles? Why has Phoenix been picked out as being an "inanimate object"? Truth be told, half the people I know on Facebook would qualify as "inanimate objects" ;-)

I've just signed up to be a Friend of the "Challenger Center", too. Is that an animate object?

Maybe we should suggest to Google - a space mad company if ever there was one - that a "Spacebook" would be a good idea...

[djellison]

To be fair - I can sort of see facebooks point.

'The Chris Moyles Show' is far from inanimate - but you don't become a friend of a pretend person - you can become a fan of it. That would seem a more appropriate methodology of affiliation for people wanting to show their support of, and get news about spacecraft.

Just my 2p's worth.

Doug

[aggieastronaut]

As far as I know, Hubble, Webb, MER (also run by me), LRO, LCROSS, Xmm-Newton, Snap, Swift, Messenger, New Horizons, Fermi, Glory, Kepler, Aura, ATV, SDO, SDO's HMI, and probably more have profiles. And yes, it'd make more sense for them as pages, but when I started MER's, pages didn't exist.

And I liked using profiles because you could give them a personality and interact with people better. Take, for example, my interview here where I'm Phoenix (http://neuralgourmet.com/2008/07/27/phoenix-lander-interview-part-1/)

[Stu]

Another good piece on the mega-successful Twittering of our favourite polar probe...

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/sto...Technology/home

[Astro0]

And another nice article relating to the success of the Public Outreach efforts on Phoenix.
http://www.azstarnet.com/metro/267531

[aggieastronaut]

Since probably most of you can't see the comments on Facebook, I'll pass along my favorites after announcing Phoenix's end.

"I wish there was a Salvation Army there, so you could get some scarves and thermal underwear."

"I volunteer to go up and bring a large bag of Sterno. I'll put them all around and under you, it will help keep you warm. I'll drink hot chocolate and sing you songs. Then we can celebrate Spring, (maybe a little dance?) and I'll come home, and you can get back to your adventurous work. ok??"

"choose life! "

"RIP Pheonix. Well done, probie. Well done."

"that'll do Phoenix Lander. that'll do."

"Fare the 6-month winter well, young lander. We all hope to hear from you when sunlight once again fills your solar tummy."


Oh, and relatively soon there should be an article on MER's Facebook/Twitter!

[Stu]

Very good piece here on the success of Phoenix's Twittering...

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20081...nix-lander.html

[ConyHigh]

Very good piece here on the success of Phoenix's Twittering...

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20081...nix-lander.html

This was all about the Twitterer. She did a good job, but....

[Stu]

um... but what..?

The Phoenix Twittering literally revolutionised the way NASA covers its space missions, breathed new life into it I'd say, and set a very high standard of Outreach for future missions - of all agencies - to aim for. Thanks to the Twittering tens of thousands of people (and I'd think probably hundreds of thousands) felt involved personally in the mission, and were able to connect with it, its scientists and its goals in a way never seen before. She did a great job, I'd say.

[ArtandSpace]

Agree with Stu 100%. It was innovative , progressive and somewhat risky for NASA to try Twitter and it worked beautifully! Maybe we'll get live video on our cell phones on the next mission!

Art

Commercial link removed - Admin.

[Stu]

BIG congratulations to JPL's (and our!) Veronica McGregor for winning a "Shorty" award for Twittering the Phoenix mission! (scroll down to the 'Science' category)

1000% deserved, and proof that the reporting of space missions will never be the same again!

[nprev]

Heyyyy! Well deserved indeed, Veronica, and thank you! I hope that your boss takes appropriate notice!

[aggieastronaut]

So, then, why dont we create Spacebook?

It seesm we've been beaten on this idea: http://fcw.com/Articles/2009/02/09/Web-2.0...ng-a-while.aspx

If only it wasn't for employees only!

[Stu]

Some thoughts on the rising influence of Twitter and what I like to call the new "Mouse Media"...

http://cumbriansky.wordpress.com/2009/02/1...eeks-and-tweets

[dmuller]

If only it wasn't for employees only!

So Phoenix wont qualify, again :-(

[BrianL]

Some thoughts on the rising influence of Twitter and what I like to call the new "Mouse Media"...

And now... a counterpoint
http://www.doonesbury.com/strip/dailydose/...l_date=20090314

[Stu]

Funny! I'm going to Tweet that right away!