I just realized our Twitter account has almost 1,000 followers! It’s crazy to think that our words and pictures are going out to that many people every day. Considering how many taxpayers fund this mission, though, a thousand people is only a tiny percentage.

We recently calculated the cost of building and running HiRISE since its inception, and it comes to ~70 million dollars over the last seven years. That sounds like a lot of money to me, but it works out to only 22 CENTS per American! What a bargain! I admit, I’m a little biased, but I think HiRISE’s amazing images, exciting science, and advances in exploration are well worth that investment. The return on that investment isn’t just a matter of the data we get back from Mars – that money goes toward employing engineers, scientists, students, and operations staffers like me. I counted almost 100 people on our team roster that are at least partially supported by HiRISE funds.

Ideally, we’d reach far more than 1,000 people – as “the people’s camera,” we’d love to give every person their 22 cents’ worth. Of course, not everyone uses Twitter, so we try to do other things, like this blog, our website, facebook, on-line learning & activities, and in-person tours and talks.

What else could we be doing? What kinds of things would you like to see us do more of? What’s worth 22 cents to you?

Originally posted at Spaced Out (Again):

We are going to try to Twitter a planning cycle for the HiRISE (http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu) experiment. The idea is to give people a feeling of all the work we have to do to get images from Mars out of a very special piece of equipment. Here are a couple of things you need to know to follow what is going on.

The scientist in charge of the scientific support for the cycle is called the CIPP. For cycle 75, that is @nick_space. Nick will be assisted by his Post-Doc., Anya, who is @mozhetbyt

The targeting specialist ensures that the plan produced can be implemented and keeps the CIPP from doing anything stupid. The targeting specialist is called the HiTS and for cycle 75 that is @laughingrid.

The HiRISE project has its own Twitter account (@HiRISE) which can also be followed.
We will try to use #hitwycle as a search hashtag for tweets.

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HiRISE is (finally!) on Twitter! (Now that we’re getting a break during Solar Conjunction, we have time to catch up with trends in technology. )

If you’re not familiar with it, Twitter is kind of like a mini-blog. Posts are limited to 140 characters, which keeps things short & simple. In a way, it’s like updating your “status” in chat or on Facebook. You can use it many different ways – commands work via SMS text messaging, so you can get or make updates with a cell phone or other mobile device; it can hook into instant messaging, chat programs or social networking sites; there are widgets you can download, or simply make & read updates through the website.

To see a great example of how this can work, check out the Phoenix Twitter feed – that was a lot of fun, and also provided timely, award-winning coverage. We don’t aim quite that high, but we hope to give you a heads up about releases, important events, and maybe some random things just for fun. (Suggestions for tweets? Add them in a comment below!)

So follow HIRISE on Twitter to see what we’re doing now!