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It's no secret that I've been a space geek/nerd/enthsiast since I was about 13 years old. Since that time I've always admired (envied?) NASA, those who work there, and of course astronauts.  Now in the world of Twitter/Facebook/YouTube and social media how I think of astronauts as people is changing drastically, and I think that's a good thing.

My mental image of how I think about astronauts as people was shaped early on in my love affair with space exploration as a result of a trip I took in the summer of 1994 to Space Camp in Huntsville Alabama.  One of the key components of the program I was participating in was simulated shuttle missions.  During my time I served on one flight in Mission Control as "Capcom" and on the next I asked for something with responsibility and ended up, to my serious surprise, as "Shuttle Commander."  However I learned quickly just how much responsibility the Capcom has (hint: LOTS more than I ever imagined but that's perhaps another post). During my time at space camp I became quick friends with a fellow space geek in my group. I geeked out over things like shuttle abort modes and acronyms and he open my mind to a whole new world of things like Mercury, Gemini and Apollo.  He suggested that I read the book Moon Shot to start catching up my knowledge of the early days of the space program and I did at the earliest connivence. (Btw, J.R. Harris if you're out there hit up the Capcom)

I think it is fair to say that if you look back on the Mercury days and the original 7 you emerge with a romanticized larger than life view of what astronauts are supposed to be. In fact back in those days that is the exact effect that NASA and the government was going for, and I came to idolize guys like Shepherd and Slayton (my to favorites from that era to this day, Shepherd in fact hailing from my native New Hampshire).

This romanticized view worked for the time but this is 2009. NASA and its astronauts, as best I can tell, have embarked on an unprecedented mission of engagement with the public they serve.  I found myself wondering the other day for example as I checked in on one of my Twitter lists, that contains all the Astronauts currently on Twitter, if 13 year old me would believe that I might one day be interacting directly with actual astronauts.  NASA and the astronauts have truly embraced social media, and that might almost be an understatement, we've now had everything from tweeting shuttle commanders, to "tweetups" on the International Space Station.  Even now this new engagement is evolving and soaring to higher heights and much like Moon Shot defined my early impressions of astronauts Twitter and YouTube are shaping my impressions of the current brand of astronaut in an even more positive light.

Let me just highlight a few of the things I've come across recently that 13 year old me probably wouldn't have believed.  The other day I came across a video of future Space Station Commander Scott Kelly (@StationCDRKelly) had posted to TwitVid giving a brief tour of the American crew quarters in Star City Russia. In case that doesn't register for you we are talking about tweeting from one of the most closely guarded secrets of the Cold War.  We also recently got a look inside the "Astro Van", thanks to Astronaut Leland Melvin (@Astro_Flow) who posted another video to Twitter, as the astronauts rode to the pad for their TCDT (or "terminal countdown demonstration test") of astronauts joking around laughing the mood was light, and it was fun to see.  Last but certainly not least Astronaut Mike Massimino has been producing a great series of videos (just one of many) on YouTube giving an inside look at the training of the STS-129 crew, if you are at all interested I highly recommend checking them out.  In addition definitely follow @Astro_Mike on Twitter he's very active and a pretty cool guy.

So what does all this mean?  Well I believe it adds up to unprecedented engagement and access to our space agency.  After all NASA is a public effort and it is great to see them engaging the very public that keeps them flying.  As a space geek it is somewhat mind boggling to me to get tweets from Star City for example a place that is not known for being open and has always fascinated me.  More than anything though what you come away from following the tweets, videos, etc. is that these are just real people they have families, kids that need to do homework have sporting events to get to, they like to joke around, they have good days and they have days that are down right frustrating...like all of us.

What NASA is succeeding in doing, I hope, is showing the world the human side, beyond the rockets, acronyms, and tech talk they are an organization of truly great dedicated...real people. Hopefully seeing this side will make kids realize, "hey I can do this, they're just like me or my dad/mom, and I can be an astronaut too" and that's a good thing when we've heard much talk lately from the President about NASA's mission to inspire.

Here's the bottom line from all of this for me, for a group that spends much of their time circling it astronauts are a very down to Earth group of people.