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Fly By Education

Fri, 10/03/2008 - 10:04 — briancsmith

This is a story four years in the making...

Next Monday, Gene Gordon, a physics teacher at Fairport High School and NASA Fellow, will embark on a "dream come true" to witness first hand the first images from unknown regions of the planet Mercury.  Gene will be sitting amongst NASA scientists as the MESSENGER spacecraft takes its extraordinary path to orbit Mercury and grab images and information from the closest planet to the Sun.  

Not only will Gene be able to experience the fly by, so will you!  Gene will be employing a variety of social computing (Web2.0) tools to share what's happening as it happens.  The following tools (linked to Gene's accounts) will be used:

  • Wikispaces
    This is Gene's "homebase"and all-in-one solution to where the subsequent tools below can be accessed and more information can be found about the MESSENGER Mission
  • Twitter
    Popular short message or microblogging service that sends updates as they happen, to get updates, visit Gene's Twitter account or start your own and follow his account.
  • Facebook
    Using this popular social networking site to get the word out about the mission, add Messenger Mission as a friend to get updates
  • Flickr
    Photo sharing site that allows for storing, sharing, social networking and tagging of photos for
  • Ustream 
    Watch it on the Ustream channel or embedded in the Messenger Mission Wiki page
  • Dragon Physics Blog
    Gene blogs about a variety of topics related to physics, education and science

 You can also follow a variety of the NASA Fellows on their social computing sites, as well as, the Mercury MESSENGER Twitter account for updates.  The mission and story continues until March 2011 when MESSENGER is inserted into Mercury's orbit.