Wed, Feb 11, 2009
Over 38,000 People Followed Status Updates Of Lander's End
NASA's activities in social networking media will be recognized
Wednesday in New York, when the agency receives an award for its
presence on the popular Web site Twitter.
Known as the Shorty Award, it was created to honor the best
producers of short content on Twitter during 2008. Updates on
NASA's Mars Phoenix Lander mission received the most votes in the
science category from users of the site.
The Mars Phoenix Twitter delivered more than 600 updates during
the 152 days the lander was operating in the north polar region of
Mars. By the end of the lander's mission in early November, more
than 38,000 people were following its reports, called "tweets." The
account is still used to provide updates on the mission's science
results and has more than 41,000 followers.
"We created the account, known as Mars Phoenix, last May with
the goal of providing the public with near real-time updates on the
mission," said Veronica McGregor, manager of the news office at
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, CA, and originator of
the updates. "The response was incredible. Very quickly it became a
way not only to deliver news of the mission, but to interact with
the public and respond to their questions about space
exploration."
Twitter allows people to follow accounts of their choosing
through the Web, or by having updates sent to their mobile phones.
Users post short updates that are limited to 140 characters or
less. The Shorty Awards were created by Sawhorse Media in New York
and are supported by a grant from the John S. and James L. Knight
Foundation in Miami.
As ANN reported, NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander
ceased communications November 2 after successfully returning
unprecedented science data to Earth. Launched August 4, 2007,
Phoenix safely touched down on Mars on May 25, 2008 at a site
farther north than where any previous spacecraft had landed.
Phoenix's soft landing on Mars was the first in 32 years.
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