{"id":7510,"date":"2013-03-16T12:00:36","date_gmt":"2013-03-16T16:00:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/?p=7510"},"modified":"2013-03-15T20:51:20","modified_gmt":"2013-03-16T00:51:20","slug":"chris-hadfield-uses-social-media-to-bring-space-down-to-earth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/2013\/03\/16\/chris-hadfield-uses-social-media-to-bring-space-down-to-earth\/","title":{"rendered":"Chris Hadfield uses social media to bring space down to earth"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Canadian astronaut and new commander of the International Space Station Chris Hadfield. Photo: NASA<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

Earlier this week\u00a0Chris Hadfield<\/a>\u00a0became the first Canadian astronaut to command the\u00a0International Space Station<\/a>.\u00a0The 53-year-old father of three keeps making headlines<\/a> in Canada, for what he’s accomplished – and how he’s sharing the journey.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

As recounted in the National Post, Hadfield keeps it up close and personal<\/a>:<\/p>\n

In other dispatches, he has brushed his teeth, demonstrated how to clean up a water spill, bubble by bubble, by plucking the distended orbs from mid-air, jammed with Ed Robertson of the Barenaked Ladies, put on a goofy outfit to celebrate Mardi Gras, swapped tweets with William (Captain Kirk) Shatner, dropped a puck from the heavens on Hockey Night in Canada, fixed some space station gizmo of great scientific importance while sending out a daily stream of majestic photographs of the Earth below \u2014 the Sahara, the Australian Outback, the blinding lights of Beijing \u2014 via Twitter, Facebook and Youtube.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

You Tube describes this Feb 2013 conversation<\/a> <\/span><\/span>\u00a0as “The epic exchange between two Canadians, CSA astronaut Chris Hadfield and actor William Shatner of Star Trek fame”.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Chris Hadfield’s professional bio<\/a> says he first traveled to the Russian space station Mir in 1995. After other earth-based projects, this is his second trip\/third mission to the space station. (He’s doing two missions on this single trip, if that makes sense. Expedition 34\/35.) He was there earlier 2001, where he also became the first Canadian to walk in space. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

While not widely celebrated outside of their own country,<\/span><\/span>\u00a0Canadian astronauts (male and female) have gone on various missions since 1984. This\u00a0<\/span>Wikipedia overview<\/a>\u00a0of the Canadian Space Program includes a chart of Canadians who’ve been in space. And here’s the official government web page for the\u00a0<\/span>Canadian\u00a0Space Agency<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

It certainly helps the PR push that Hadfield comes across as friendly, down-to-earth and capable with a really up-beat attitude. Here he is talking about\u00a0achieving\u00a0goals<\/a>\u00a0– or having fun trying, whatever the outcome may be.<\/p>\n

It’s Hadfield’s extensive use of\u00a0social media which has captured followers and media attention like never before. With\u00a0over\u00a0four thousand tweets<\/a>\u00a0and counting, Hadfield currently has over a half million followers.<\/p>\n

You Tube is full of videos showing\u00a0Hadfield at work<\/a>, including this\u00a0January<\/a>\u00a029 2013 conversation<\/a>\u00a0where he discusses social media outreach in a “traditional media” interview. Hadfield says the new technology permits those living and working in space to “directly give people the human side of that”.<\/p>\n

Hadfield’s images from space<\/a>\u00a0have grabbed public imagination. Hadfield says looking out the window is one of the best parts about the job. His photos share “fundamentally\u00a0beautiful\u00a0and mesmerizing” views.<\/p>\n

Hadfield happily puts plain text to work too, as with this\u00a0interactive chat<\/a>\u00a0on Reddit.<\/p>\n

Q)\u00a0If you discover intelligent life, who should play you in the movie?<\/p>\n

A) Someone with a good moustache…..<\/span><\/p>\n

Q)\u00a0Which part of the world looks the coolest from space?<\/span><\/p>\n

A) Australia looks coolest – the colours and textures of the Outback are severly artistic. The most beautiful to me are the Bahamas, the vast glowing reefs of every shade of blue that exists.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Some readers are thinking “what’s\u00a0Reddit<\/a>“? \u00a0Well,\u00a0Wikipedia says<\/a>\u00a0the name is a mash up of<\/p>\n

\u00a0…”read\/edit” and of “read it”, i.e., “I read it on Reddit”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It’s a generational thing. I’m (ahem!) middle-aged, so I only know about it through younger people. Hadfield says his son Evan Hadfield<\/a> “is helping support my social media, and taught me how to use Reddit”.<\/p>\n

So, this post is a three-fer: a tip of the hat to a father-son duo doing good work, an attempt to share some great photos with a wider audience and an on-going example of how to generate participatory enthusiasm with some of the newer tools in the kit.<\/p>\n

Opinions on space programs tend to split along two sides: “Yes, it’s part of human progress, we must” and “No, it’s a waste of money when people are still starving”. I’m not sure either side’s mind can be shifted, since each perspective has merit.<\/p>\n

Without taking sides, I’m just\u00a0happy to help remind anyone who may have forgotten that earth is beautiful, special … and vulnerable. It’s a throw-back to a poster that was popular during early space flights showing out planet as a distinct, not-so-big marble, with the caption:\u00a0“Love your Mother<\/a>“. Indeed.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, methods of getting messages\u00a0across\u00a0keep changing. It is interesting to see what does or does not work in that regard.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Earlier this week\u00a0Chris Hadfield\u00a0became the first Canadian astronaut to command the\u00a0International Space Station.\u00a0The 53-year-old father […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[880,11447,11448,5670,107,11449],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7510"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7510"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7510\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7519,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7510\/revisions\/7519"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7510"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7510"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7510"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}