Blogs from Space!

The time has come for me to directly address the organization my blog keeps coming back to: NASA. More specifically, NASA and social media.

These aren't two terms that I would put together. Then again, I'll be the first to admit that I'm still stuck in the mindset (with good reason, thanks) of NASA being filled with men carrying slide rules and pocket protectors. They clearly don't know what a blog is! It's doesn't really affect them! Of course, it isn't 1968 anymore and everyone knows what a blog is, and it's no surprise that a huge government organization that pioneered the most primitive internet and amazing technologies would exploit such an easy and far-ranging way to reach out to interested parties world-wide.

NASA has a series of blogs relating to different topics: Moonbuggies, DIY, robotics, constellations... One that I found particularly interesting in terms of a NASA blog is one maintained by the CIO of the Goddard Spaceflight Center. In this blog, CIO Linda Cureton moves away from the straight technology and science of manned and unmanned space exploration, and instead maintains a blog that could be by any CIO in any other company. Her blogs discusses NASA as any other business. It's an interesting find, and certainly a good use of social media, but what about us nerds who want updates on missions and a chance to read what the engineers are feeling, seeing and doing as they track probes through the solar system?

Well, sure enough, NASA has delivered on that front, too. The Ares X-I Rocket's progress as it is completed, assembled and tested is tracked in its own blog. This blog features pictures, interviews and news updates about the project. Like any blog, you can follow it or subscribe to its RSS feed - all in all a great way to stay abreast of happenings in mission you might be interested in.

The one area where the NASA site seems to be lacking in effective social media is on the history end. While this may be less important that cutting edge flight technology for most, for those like me it's the most interesting and fascinating part of the organization. There are links to history blogs, such as Today in Space History. This link, however, links to a whole other website, the Encyclopedia Astronomica. And while you can subscribe to the sites RSS feed, it isn't updated regularly. I subscribed to it about nine months ago, and I haven't gotten an update in about six.

This is the only area I would say NASA could use improvement in terms of their social media. While blogs generally focus on things happening here and now (or at least now if you're far from the here), there is potential for a history blog. The National Air and Space Museum is also without strong social media. If it were up to me, I would try and bridge the two organizations. I would love to see a blog that chronicles findings from NASA of days of yore with new research being done at the NASM. Maybe that's just me, though who knows, there may be an audience worth communicating to in space history geeks!