Astroengine Data Gathering

Astroengine.com has been in operation for a few years now, but since I began doing some serious space writing in late 2007 the site underwent a major facelift and became what you see today: A space science news blog. As time goes on I will be increasing the frequency at which I update Astroengine – it might be a lot of writing but it will be worth it. During my time researching space articles for Astroengine and my science writing for the Universe Today, I try to find as much original stuff as possible, but often settle of interesting news that is already out there. This is where you can help. If you have anything you would like me to write about, feel free to drop me a line. I recently did this for a regular Astroengine reader who wanted something written about the Higgs boson, a topic I hadn’t thought about addressing. The article was then Dugg like crazy, killing the server more than once! So if you have an idea and want to have a chance at overwhelming Astroengine with traffic, contact me with your idea and I’ll see what can be done.

So, after eight months of space news, I’d like to get your feedback about how Astroengine is shaping up and how you think it could be improved. After all, Astroengine is driven by you, so your views are very important…

It has been a very exciting period for space exploration and space science; we are on the cusp of some huge scientific discoveries over the coming years. In one month we have the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) going online, we have the New Horizons Pluto mission powering its way to the outer reaches of the solar system, Phoenix is still digging into the Martian regolith, manned missions to the Moon and Mars are getting closer as more tests are carried out on NASA’s Constellation Project… the list is getting longer by the day. Along with all these popular news items, there is also a growing undercurrent of research papers that are pushing beyond the realms of traditional thinking, shaping the way we see our Universe. Through all these amazing feats of human ingenuity, Astroengine will attempt to document as many as possible, discussing them in an informal, yet informed way.

However, so I can get a feel for what my regular (and brand new) readers think about the direction I’ve headed (and so far I’ve been flying blind!), it would be great if you can participate in the following survey to air your views. Once you’ve checked the applicable boxes below (and you can tick as many as you like), you’ll get to see what other readers think about the site. Once I’ve given this poll a week or so, I’ll work the responses into Astroengine’s plan and act accordingly.

Many thanks for your help in advance, I hope to see you again very soon.

Cheers, Ian

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