Ideas & Opinions
What if the moon landings happened today in a world of Twitter and mobile?
By Mike on 20 July 2009
GLOBAL – As I’m sure many of you are aware today marks 40 years since man first kicked up dust on the surface of the moon. But what if the moon landings had taken place today, documented and shared in a digital-savvy culture where Twitter and online distribution tools are cemented in our everyday lives and informal info gathering routines?
How would the news of the crew aboard Apollo 11 touching down have been shared via mobile and the web? Would we be updated by astronauts tweeting their every small step and giant leap? Would they have created a blog on WordPress or Typepad and posted updates, and spent their downtime moderating comments and spammers?
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UPDATE: The best comment award goes to Ramkumar R. Aiyengar (see comments section below)
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How do you imagine photos, video, audio and live facts might be collected and distributed by our compulsively active global online community? Would the footage be shared online in high definition and would podcasts be piped into our ears within minutes of touchdown? How would the conspiracy theories be voiced – YouTube video responses? Surely.
The possibilities are vast, as are the distribution channels, both person to person and single service to global populace.
Ultimately, would we be treated to a better enriched experience with more appreciation for such an event? One that would inevitably saturate the web with more content and opinion than we’d begin to know how to digest (a challenge that already exists). Would the scale and mystique of landing on the moon be lost in our mobile digital age or enhanced? I’d like to think the latter, but what do you reckon?
I think the scenario is a fascinating one, and I’d be interested to find out how you think such a monumental moment such as mankind landing on the moon would have been covered today with the mobile technology and sharing tools so readily on hand to us.
Let us know how you think it might have played out. The best comment wins a copy of our favourite Twitter app, Gravity for S60 to add an extra sprinkling of fun to the proceedings, so please leave your ‘out of this world’ opinions below.
Photo from Kevin
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July 20th, 2009 at 8:22 pm
All mobile operators and Twitter servers would be on high capacity and could even lead to catastrophe. (Nah, don’t worry servers would be up in matters of hours or days)
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July 20th, 2009 at 9:15 pm
we all saw the chaos on Twitter when Michael Jackson had died…. Imagine that but 10 times more messages from all around the world and that would be what to expect.
Basically if Twitter did not explode with the amount of messages in one go they would have a system that NASA would love to have!
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July 21st, 2009 at 2:59 am
Ironically, the reliance on only a few broadcast channels to relay the initial experience actually allowed us to focus on the awe-inspiring moment — we had a collective experience, rather than 400 million channels of one looking for the biggest traffic hit from the event. At a moment so transformational, we need to stop, be quiet and absorb the weight and magnitude of that moment.
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July 21st, 2009 at 4:22 am
I think it wont be a huge event if the moon landing happens today, with the technological advancement we have right now and the thousands of medium around us, i don’t think it will capture that much attention c”,
Yes it might become the trending topic on twitter but it will be short lived and who would want to watch the moon landing on youTube if they can watch Star Trek and the USS Enterprise travel galaxies.
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July 21st, 2009 at 6:01 am
It would be trending topic on twitter, the landing video would be featured on youtube (and get a thousand inane “reaction” video responses), thousands would join the NASA facebook group to post a couple words on the wall.
As Dan Carter said, it would create a lot of chaos and a lot of noise on those services, eventually bringing something down, lol.
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July 21st, 2009 at 9:15 am
They could take a Nokia N97 up with them and connect it to the Lunar Lander via WiFi and record the video and photos using the N97. Realise that the mobile reception isn’t too good up there but give it another month or two, when the next FW update releases and they could use Skype via the WiFi connection to phone home “Look Ma I’m on top of the Moon”. At present they could still use Gizmo.
They could even be tweeting from up there using Gravity. Would it be low gravity.
They could be attachimng there photos to there facebook pages and sharing them online via Flickr, Vox and OVI Share and blog about the lot. all from that marvelous little N97. They could even write the misson log in Quick Office and e-mail it back to mission control.
Isn’t WiFi a wounderful thing.
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July 21st, 2009 at 9:17 am
People would be so busy Twittering they would miss it.
Then they would complain about the picture quality, and start a Facebook campaign “FixNasa”.
And everyone would get the feeling they’d missed out on something big.
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July 21st, 2009 at 10:14 am
1) the funny part: As I saw on a Apollo 11 documentary in 1969 there was a second version of President Nixon’s speech prepared with words of condolence in the event something have gone wrong.
Today – I’m pretty sure such a speech of President Obama would be somehow leaked – and THAT would be the most clicked You Tube video ever!
2) the serious part:
Landing at the moon today – this would be the one of the very last “old fashioned” worldwide classic television events.
I think so – because people still would like to see the action in good quality and not with small pixels.
BUT: If something went wrong on such a Apollo 11 mission in 2009 – then Twitter would be THE source for rumours of every kind.
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July 21st, 2009 at 1:18 pm
RT @armstrong23: A small step for man, a giant leap for mankind #apollo11 #moontrip
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Mike Reply:
July 23rd, 2009 at 10:04 am
@Ramkumar R. Aiyengar, Absolutely. Top class.
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July 22nd, 2009 at 11:46 am
@Ramkumar – That is genius. So funny!
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July 23rd, 2009 at 10:08 am
Thanks for all your great comments on this topic. It really sparked some interesting ideas, and we’ll be doing more of this stuff in the future (watch this space). One this occasion the best comment award, and a copy of Gravity on S60 for Twitter goes to Ramkumar R. Alyengar – we’ll be emailing you your activation code shortly. Congrats!
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July 28th, 2009 at 1:39 pm
You would have 5.2million retweets of “Man makes it to the Moon” followed by more RTs and @’s lol.
Possibly the ultimate crash of Twitter.
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September 9th, 2009 at 9:33 am
gravity update twice a day, too crazy.
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