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Phoenix Outreach, ... or "That's the way to do it..."
Stu
post Jun 5 2008, 07:36 PM
Post #1


The Poet Dude
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From: Kendal, Cumbria, UK
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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!!! wink.gif ... 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... wink.gif

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... rolleyes.gif

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!


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Stu
post Feb 11 2009, 12:16 AM
Post #2


The Poet Dude
****

Group: Moderator
Posts: 5551
Joined: 15-March 04
From: Kendal, Cumbria, UK
Member No.: 60



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! smile.gif



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Posts in this topic
- Stu   Phoenix Outreach   Jun 5 2008, 07:36 PM
- - Stu   Thought someone should point out - and celebrate -...   Sep 13 2008, 05:17 PM
|- - Paolo Amoroso   QUOTE (Stu @ Sep 13 2008, 07:17 PM) Thoug...   Sep 14 2008, 08:52 AM
|- - dmuller   I've always said that going to Mars is rocket ...   Sep 14 2008, 11:57 AM
- - Paolo Amoroso   QUOTE (Stu @ Jun 5 2008, 09:36 PM) Having...   Sep 14 2008, 08:59 AM
- - aggieastronaut   What made me upset is they disabled my Phoenix Fac...   Sep 14 2008, 04:49 PM
|- - Stu   QUOTE (aggieastronaut @ Sep 14 2008, 05:4...   Sep 14 2008, 05:24 PM
||- - aggieastronaut   QUOTE (Stu @ Sep 14 2008, 11:24 AM) Who a...   Sep 14 2008, 05:32 PM
|- - Paolo Amoroso   QUOTE (aggieastronaut @ Sep 14 2008, 06:4...   Sep 15 2008, 09:51 AM
|- - aggieastronaut   QUOTE (Paolo Amoroso @ Sep 15 2008, 03:51...   Sep 16 2008, 12:01 AM
|- - Stu   QUOTE (aggieastronaut @ Sep 16 2008, 01:0...   Sep 16 2008, 06:26 AM
- - Aussie   I wasn't sure that 'Stupid' was the ri...   Sep 14 2008, 10:24 PM
- - PhilCo126   Now let's just hope the Phoenix Lander will pr...   Sep 15 2008, 10:13 AM
- - Del Palmer   People can lose their Facebook account for the dum...   Sep 16 2008, 11:44 AM
- - dmuller   So, then, why dont we create Spacebook?   Sep 16 2008, 12:10 PM
|- - aggieastronaut   QUOTE (dmuller @ Sep 16 2008, 06:10 AM) S...   Feb 11 2009, 03:55 PM
|- - dmuller   QUOTE (aggieastronaut @ Feb 12 2009, 02:5...   Feb 14 2009, 11:32 AM
- - aggieastronaut   I was given the reason that Phoenix was an "i...   Sep 17 2008, 04:00 AM
|- - Stu   QUOTE (aggieastronaut @ Sep 17 2008, 05:0...   Sep 17 2008, 05:48 AM
- - djellison   To be fair - I can sort of see facebooks point. ...   Sep 17 2008, 06:51 AM
- - aggieastronaut   As far as I know, Hubble, Webb, MER (also run by m...   Sep 18 2008, 05:08 AM
- - Stu   Another good piece on the mega-successful Twitteri...   Nov 8 2008, 11:20 AM
- - Astro0   And another nice article relating to the success o...   Nov 17 2008, 05:52 AM
- - aggieastronaut   Since probably most of you can't see the comme...   Nov 21 2008, 02:25 PM
- - Stu   Very good piece here on the success of Phoenix...   Nov 27 2008, 11:11 PM
|- - ConyHigh   QUOTE (Stu @ Nov 27 2008, 03:11 PM) Very ...   Nov 29 2008, 04:38 AM
- - Stu   um... but what..? The Phoenix Twittering literall...   Nov 29 2008, 06:16 AM
- - ArtandSpace   Agree with Stu 100%. It was innovative , progress...   Jan 23 2009, 06:41 AM
- - Stu   BIG congratulations to JPL's (and our!) Ve...   Feb 11 2009, 12:16 AM
- - nprev   Heyyyy! Well deserved indeed, Veronica,...   Feb 11 2009, 01:19 AM
- - Stu   Some thoughts on the rising influence of Twitter a...   Feb 14 2009, 08:36 AM
|- - BrianL   QUOTE (Stu @ Feb 14 2009, 02:36 AM) Some ...   Mar 19 2009, 03:58 PM
- - Stu   Funny! I'm going to Tweet that right aw...   Mar 19 2009, 04:01 PM


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