Interplanetary Twitt'ring

One of the things I love most about Twitter is the Phoenix feed from Mars, @MarsPhoenix. I mean, it's not really a feed from Mars, but it's written by someone in the ground crew of the digger from ITS first person perspective. It has now been joined by the Cassini probe, @CassiniSaturn which is out doing stuff near Saturn

CassiniSaturn Also passed through Saturn's ring plane today, from north to south. And observed other moons Enceladus, Janus, and Rhea.
3 hours ago from web

CassiniSaturn Busy day at Saturn! Distant flybys of the moons Daphnis (altitude = 43,000 km; 26,000 mi) and Prometheus (altitude = 31,000 km; 20,000 mi).
3 hours ago from web

It came from outer space

Here is a series of short texts about life on the International Space Station. They were written by Donalt Pettit, an American astronaut who lived on the ISS for 6 months. The texts range from very no-nonsense scientific texts to strangely poetic, haiku-like observations:

It is easy to spill a little water. Perhaps you release some water from the nozzle of our food re-hydrating dispenser, or perhaps from the nozzle where we bathe. In either case, you produce a most amazing array of tiny jeweled spheres, each glistening like a crystal lens as they scatter in all directions. You chase them down with a tissue and catch a few before they impact on the walls. When tissue-contact is made, they adsorb so quickly they simply disappear as if they were soap bubbles that had just popped. You feel a small sadness inside for having destroyed something so beautiful.

Something about the distance from Earth must give you quite the existential change of perspective.

Also, he plays the didgeridoo, which he made. Out of ice and butter..