Twitter Astronaut turns out to be tweeting via email
The underscore in his username should’ve made us wary. Space Shuttle astronaut Mike Massimino, known as @Astro_Mike on Twitter, drew a third of a million followers for what most presumed were Massimino’s real-time tweets from space.
The Orlando Sentinel burst our balloon this morning by reporting how Massimino actually transfers his tweets from shuttle Atlantis’ orbit to Twitter’s servers in San Francisco.
Massimino writes his updates in space and then e-mails them to Houston, where a NASA… Continue Reading
Microsoft teams with NASA to challenge Google in the new space race
The new space race is on.
Last month, Google unveiled Google Mars 3D, a way to explore the Martian surface in the new version of Google Earth. Earlier this month, it unveiled a live view, historical map and guided tour of the red planet. Now, Microsoft is striking back with new Mars data and images of its own, thanks to NASA.
And the two companies are battling for virtual space supremacy over more than just Mars. Microsoft… Continue Reading
The Internet enters the final frontier
NASA announced today that it has completed its first successful test of a communications network in space that’s modeled on the internet.
The space agency could use the network to improve control over remote spacecraft and communication with manned missions. But the science fiction nerd in me can’t help dreaming about an actual deep space internet, connecting folks on Earth with those in space, on the moon and elsewhere.
The Earth-based and space-based internets also share a… Continue Reading
In a brave new landscape, Google grows closer to NASA
Mountain View, California’s Shoreline Park has a strange, post-industrial feel to it, and not just because it was built on San Francisco’s garbage. Situated next to the man-made salt flats of the South Bay, it boasts not only a large concert venue, Shoreline Amphitheatre, but a golf course, a restaurant, and what appears to be a cement factory. Not to mention decaying rail bridges and canals, and a lot of wildlife.
The whole area is about… Continue Reading