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Overcoming its "seven minutes of terror" -- and winning the hearts of geeks worldwide -- the 2,000 lb. NASA Curiosity Rover landed on Mars at 1:39am, early Monday morning EST.
"We're on Mars again," said the exhilirated NASA chief, Charles Bolden. "It's just absolutely incredible. It doesn't get any better than this."
Much of the Twittersphere agreed with him -- especially as the Curiosity Rover's official account was live-tweeting the whole landing, writing in what you might well call the voice of the Internet. The first surface-based missive from what many users were calling the "tweeting truck" was this gem:
I'm safely on the surface of Mars. GALE CRATER I AM IN YOU!!! #MSL— Curiosity Rover (@MarsCuriosity) August 6, 2012
Moments later, the account paraphrased Neil Armstrong -- but went the first man on the moon one better, by posting the first ever twitpic from an alien planet.
It once was one small step... now it's six big wheels. Here's a look at one of them on the soil of Mars #MSL twitter.com/MarsCuriosity/…— Curiosity Rover (@MarsCuriosity) August 6, 2012
Back on Earth, a rapt audience followed along via live feed on UStream. And Flight Director Bobak Ferdowsi, instantly recognizable via his mowhawk covered in spray stars, became an instant Internet sensation. He Instagrammed his view from the control room. His wonderfully-named Twitter account, @tweetsoutloud, went from 200 followers to 11,000 in the space of a few hours.
No wonder, with tweets like this:
Mars looks so big - about the size of your open hand, arm extended! Crazy! #msl #jpl #nasa #curiosity— Bobak F. (@tweetsoutloud) August 6, 2012
or this:
Folks asking about my hair, here it is. Been doing this for big events on #MSL #jpl #nasa #curiosity #daremightythings twitter.com/tweetsoutloud/…— Bobak F. (@tweetsoutloud) August 6, 2012
Naturally, Ferdowsi gave rise to a Tumblr, NASA Needs More Mowhawks, and launched dozens of memes, such as:
The moment of landing led to an explosion of superlatives on Twitter. Users outdid each other to congratulate the mission, NASA, and science in general. A $2.5 billion mission -- a cost that is not that much more than what NBC paid for the Olympics -- was celebrated for its ability to inspire an entire country, not to mention a planet.
As NASA was at pains to point out during its press conference, that amounts to an amazing $7 show for everyone in the U.S.
Curiosity's adventures have only just begun, but the sheer awesomeness of the moment of landing will be hard to match.
What's your reaction on this historic occasion? How do you feel about NASA's use of social media? Let us know in the comments.
