#NASATweetup #exo #EPICWIN

Recipe for an epic day:

• Learn something new.
• Meet someone famous.
• Make a new friend.
• Go on an adventure.
• Visit Mars.

Now you might be thinking to yourself - yeah, that would be epic!! But totally impossible.

Except yesterday, I checked each and every one of those boxes.

I was invited to NASA Ames' tweetup, along with 90ish other guests. We spent the day touring the facilities (some usually off-limit to civilians), listening to lectures from astrobiologists, physicists, and even an astronaut! The day had a few hiccups, but the organizational team handled everything professionally.

I learned that there may yet be life on Mars, deep down under the surface. I met Karol "Bo" Bobko, an astronaut three times over. I met Joanna, an absolutely love girl originally from London. I tromped all over NASA's campus, in awe of the gargantuan buildings and content employees.

Oh, and I visited Mars! Or at least, I was surrounded by 360 views of the planet, thanks to the control tower simulator. So barren, and yet so beautiful.

I'm still processing everything that happened, but I came away with a modified idea for a scifi short story, and a wealth of information. Thank you to NASA for organizing this amazing tweetup!

edit: and NASA posted some photos here and here! I'm on the far left in both.

#NASATweetup

Ah, universe, sometimes your love shines brightly.

I'm a big fan of twitter, and when I used to blog professionally, I had the opportunity to enter (and host) lots of contests and even some tweetups. These days I've been considerably less involved, although I do score some free products every now and again.

Earlier this month NASA dangled a carrot: 100 people would be picked to attend an exclusive Tweetup at the NASA Ames Center, conveniently located nearby. I jumped at the chance.

And, somehow I was picked!

The list of tweeps attending can be found here. Many are space aficiandos, radio hosts, etc. I feel very lucky to be among them. Even more exciting? NASA wants us to be super web-friendly while on the premises. We can tweet, take pictures, bring our laptops, whatever. I'm hoping this will be an excellent opportunity to talk to a few astronauts (!!) and round up some story ideas.

If not, though, I still find space to be a completely fascinating subject. I'll post a rundown of events, and some photos, after the tweetup!