Tweet when an astronaut hits space

This post is a landing page for a tweet that will send from my account every time an (US) astronaut leaves the earth for space.  Clearly I will not be monitoring all space activity personally, but as NASA have just added a channel  IFTTT I thought it only right to play with it. 

How does it work?

If This Then That (IFTTT) is a fun tool that lets you connect the physical and virtual word in a set of commands. In this particularly IFTTT “recipe” I have set up a simple logic

IF THIS:             an astronaut enters space

THEN THAT:  tweet the details to my Twitter account

You can follow me on Twitter to check it out here:

 Follow @robertgalavan

What has this got to do with anything? 

The ability for us to interact automatically with the internet, with physical acts triggering digital outputs and in turn other physical actions, is beginning to open up a huge array of possibilities we have not encountered before. Broadly this is being describes as the Internet of Things, but it includes not just the devices connected to the internet (for example I get updates on temperature and air quality in my home from a weigh scales!) but the potential to use logical decision making, and increasingly AI algorithms to learn about you and make decisions for you. One of the most publicised devices has been the “self-learning” NEST thermostat. We can expect to see home devices such as house alarms connected in this way in the future. If say you move more than 500 yards from your house it will check that the alarm is set, maybe let you know if you forgot to turn the heat off and ask if you want to do that now, and turn the lock on the front door if you forgot to. It is time to start figuring out the amazing new services this technology will enable.