Mars Missions As one of Earth’s nearest neighbours, there’s always been a lot of interest in Mars. Since Mariner 4 was launched in 1964 a total of 15 robotic missions have visited the red planet. There are several missions currently tweeting from Mars with several more planned for the future. Expect this to increase as NASA continues its current plan to put people on Mars in the 2030s with the Orion Spacecraft (@NASA_ Orion). These include Mars Curiosity (@MarsCuriosity) a robot which has been roving around the surface of the planet since August 2012 and MAVEN (@MAVEN2Mars) a mission to explore the upper atmosphere. Also in orbit around Mars is the Indian mission Mars Orbiter (@MarsOrbiter) which is India’s first mission to Mars. The probe has been orbiting the planet since September 2014. NASA’s InSight mission (@NASAInsight) will launch in 2016 and plans to plant a seismometer on the surface of Mars to study geological activity. Awe and Wonder Whilst not providing up-to-the minute breaking science news, there are many other Twitter accounts that can inject a little awe and wonder into science lessons with some spectacular images. This includes Astro Pic of the Day (@apod) which tweets a different space photograph every day along with a brief explanation by a professional astronomer. The Hubble Space Telescope (@HubbleTelescope) is still taking amazing photographs of space. Hubble will eventually be replaced by the James Webb Telescope (@NASAWebbTelescp) in a few years’ time, follow it now to track its development. How to follow these accounts You can view these Twitter streams whether you have a Twitter account or not, but it is better if you sign up for a Twitter account (it’s free to do so). You don’t even need to post messages yourself, you could just use it to follow other accounts. It would probably be a good idea to keep it separate from any personal account you have, especially if you plan to show the Twitter stream in class. If you do sign up to Twitter, don’t forget to also keep an eye on hashtags such as #UKEdchat for general education ideas and #ASEChat and browse bit.ly/uked15oct03 for science-specific ideas.
UKED Magazine Oct 2015
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