NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander was sent to space in early May and has since then been tweeting details about its mission back to the folks still here on Earth. NASA's intent with its use of Twitter.com was to attract a new audience of kids to twenty-somethings. NASA used Twitter for the first time with this mission and has had a very positive response. At the time of this blog post, MarsPhoenix had 33,797 followers!
I think using Twitter to post updates about the mission is a great idea because people who may not ever take the time to read about the Mars rover can read its Twitter page in about 20 seconds or less. I also think its great that people can ask questions about the mission and MarsPhoenix will answer.
I also love how the updates from MarsPhoenix are in first person. A NASA Media Relations person says, "People are talking about how the lander has its own personality now because we talk about everything in first person. People think it is like this plucky, optimistic and determined creature."
As I read the Twitter updates from MarsPhoenix about finding "humidity in the air but no water molecules on the ground" and about how the rover has "plans to last many weeks before the ice and darkness wins" and it cannot operate on solar power anymore, I imagine a Wall-E like character.
I love that science and a popular social networking site, Twitter.com, can be used together to educate people about space in a fun, new way!!
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