NASA ISS Astronauts Answer Twitter Questions - Video

NASA astronauts Don Pettit and Mike Massimino answer questions submitted via Twitter.

NASA Astronaut Reid Wiseman Answers Questions From Space

NASA astronaut Reid Wiseman is pictured while floating freely in the Unity node of the International Space Station.

Image Credit: NASA

NASA astronaut Reid Wiseman has been living and working on the International Space Station since May 28.

Wiseman is constantly conducting research to benefit us on Earth and posting images on social media to entertain us on Earth.

Now you have a chance to ask him a question while he orbits the Earth in a laboratory 240 miles in space.

NASA will host an in-flight social media event live with the International Space Station between 6 a.m. and 7 a.m. CDT, Tuesday, Sept. 23.

This event will connect NASA's social media followers with Wiseman as he orbits the Earth.

NASA's social media followers may submit video questions prior to the event. During the event, several video questions will be selected and answered by Wiseman.

Unique and original questions are more likely to be selected.

The deadline to submit video questions is Sept. 15. To be considered, video clips must be no longer than 30 seconds and must be uploaded to YouTube and tagged with #askAstro.

Submitters should introduce themselves and mention their location before asking their question.

The event can be viewed live on NASA Television. Follow Wiseman and NASA Johnson Space Center on Twitter for more at @astro_reid and @NASA_Johnson.

NASA Spacesuit Development - Interview with Amy Ross, Engineer

Part I: NASA's designing new spacesuits! Watch this interview with Amy Ross, a NASA Johnson Spacesuit engineer! Follow Nasa Johnson on Twitter at @NASA_Johnson

Part II:

JAXA: Sending Twitter Humanoid Bot to ISS 2013

Robonaut2 NASA
 

When the humanoid Robonaut takes off for the ISS next week aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery, his days as the sole humanoid in orbit may already be numbered. JAXA, the Japanese space agency, has announced that it plans to send its own humanoid ‘bot to the ISS in 2013.

In proper Japanese style, their robot won’t just be aimed at maintenance tasks and other menial jobs; JAXA envisions their humanoid being a companion to the astronauts aboard the ISS, conversing with them, watching over the mission while the flesh-and-blood astronauts sleep, and helping them remain healthy.


It will also phone home via Twitter, and not in the slightly puppetlike way that R-2 does. NASA’s Robonaut tweets, but it generally just regurgitates messages given to it by NASA spokespeople. JAXA wants its robot to carry on an original and genuine dialog with its adoring fans back on Earth.

JAXA also envisions its robot being more human-like than R-2. Its ‘bot will be part of a larger effort in Japan to create robots capable of assisting that country’s aging population. As such, JAXA wants it to exhibit facial expressions, communicate effectively, and otherwise become a friend and colleague to the astronauts aboard the ISS.

Cue the comparisons to HAL 9000, or even Kevin Spacey’s smiley moon base ‘bot in Moon. But given the hostile environment that begins not so very far above our heads, having robots that can do some of the heavy lifting in space is more or less key to expanding our presence in orbit and beyond. If robots are smart enough to beat us at Jeopardy, there’s really no reason they shouldn’t be helping us conduct our scientific missions in space.

NASA Astronaut Soichi to return from ISS to Earth

Soichi Noguchi's pictures from space have used Twitter service Twitpic to capture a range of images

Soichi Noguchi's pictures from space have used Twitter service Twitpic to capture a range of images

Soichi Noguchi's pictures from space have used Twitter service Twitpic to capture a range of images

The astronaut who has been tweeting pictures of the Earth from space is set to return to land this week, marking the end of an extraordinary gallery that has included pictures of the Space Shuttle Atlantis as well as a host of images of the Earth itself.

Soichi Noguchi, a Japanese astronaut currently staying on the International Space Station, first began using the twitpic service when Nasa introduced a new way for crew-members to access the web from space. Previously, astronauts had been using services such as Twitter by emailing messages to mission control and then having somebody repost them to the site manually.

Since the new connection was installed, however, the flight engineer has uploaded more than 600 photographs of areas around the globe, as well as pictures of the station and shuttle. Recently these have included images of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, Moscow by night, the Moon, his colleagues and Mount Ararat as well as more artistic images.

Earlier this year, Nasa also held a live Q&A with astronauts answering questions about their life orbiting the Earth. It is likely that other astronauts will continue to Twitter from the space station, however – Astro_Soichi currently has over 244,000 followers.

Greenpeace Webcams: Esperanza, Arctic Sunrise and Rainbow Warrior

Travel with the intrepid Greenpeace ships and watch them as they sail the seven seas.

All, in the name of ecology and focussed on saving this beautiful planet and it's ocean-going species, from destruction by humanity, both directly through over exploitation and indirectly via pollution, chemical and oil spillage.

Get Involved
Sign up for our newsletter and action alerts, follow fellow Greenpeace twitterers, jump into the discussions at the Greenpeace Facebook page.

One of the things that makes Greenpeace  powerful is our ability to work together. We are a truly social network with more than 5 million people connected to one another worldwide and it's all free:

• Sign up for action alerts from Greenpeace International in English
• Sign up for action alerts from your local Greenpeace office
• Join the conversation on twitter
• Make friends with us on Facebook

Twitter Hit by Denial of Service Attack

On an otherwise normal and happy Thursday morning, Twitter became the most recent high profile site to be the target of a denial of service attack.

Attacks such as this are malicious efforts orchestrated to disrupt and make unavailable services such as online banks, credit card payment gateways, and the service provided to customers.

Twitter. A denial of service for intended customers or users. Twitter say 'We are defending against this attack now and will continue to update our status blog as we continue to defend and later investigate.'

Twitter Hacked, What Secrets will Be Revealed?

The Google Apps documents connected with the hacked Twitter accounts have been plundered by the raiders. Bad news all round.