Just one more sleep to Australia's first Tweetup for the launch of the Mars Curiosity rover - the #CSIROTweetup

The launch of the new bigger, smarter, faster Mars rover Curiosity is this weekend (2am Sunday). This nuclear-powered, laser-toting laboratory on wheels is as big as a car, weighs three tonnes and will go places on Mars that the little go-kat sized Spirit and Opportunity could only dream of, in the search for life past or present.

(It may be tons - not sure - stupid Yanks and their Imperial measures - maybe we should remind them what those measurements are called? That will make them ditch them quick smart and join the rest of the world almost in metrics!)

And the Canberra connection to the launch - the first Tweetup in Australia - is just one more sleep away.

The Canberra Deep Space Communications Centre (or Tidbinbilla Tracking Station to locals) will be hosting a “Tweetup” of 50 lucky NASA/CSIRO Twitter followers at the centre for three days before and after the launch. And I’m stoked to be one of the 50 – I’m @AshleyInTheory. And that's why Curiosity has been my Facebook and Twitter avatar for the last few weeks!

A Tweetup is something that NASA does to bring supporters together for an ‘inside view’ of an event – usually launches of the Space Shuttle (past tense - boo NASA!) and other missions. The tweeting of event commentary by participants extends the reach of the information virally to their followers and leads to an amazingly large audience.
This is the first time a NASA co-sponsored Tweetup has been held in the Southern Hemisphere. Tweeps will be inside the CDCC witnessing the launch, and the first in-orbit signals to be received from the launch rocket will be via CDCC. (CDCCCCC - that acronym needs more Cs doesn't it? Maybe we need CNNNN covering the CDCCCCC?)  

The local Tweetup program includes talks with leading scientists who have been involved in the science going into the Curiosity experiments, telescope viewing, and more. It’s three days of geeky science overload, and you can bet I'm going to be loving every moment of it. (I'm an environmental science grad working in a non-science desk job and it hurts...)

You can also listen to a nifty 10-minute CSIRO podcast about the event.

You can follow the proceedings, see photos etc via the hashtag #CSIROTweetup, or the similar event at the launch at Kennedy Space Centre itself via #NASATweetup. You can also watch the launch live via http://the-riotact.com/canberra-hosting-mars-rover-tweetup/www.nasa.gov/ntv – look for the HD stream link on the left side of the screen if you have a good connection – looks gorgeous plugged into your big screen TV, with the volume cranked at launch time.

If you are interested in hearing about other events that may come up in the future, follow @CSIROnews and @CanberraDSN