Spacecraft social networks not only bring science closer to people, but also change the ways of communication in science. A striking example is the tweets of NASA’s Mars rovers
These days, most space enthusiasts follow their favorite missions on social media. An important milestone in the development of such communication were the Twitter accounts of Mars rovers, which were among the first to conquer the Internet back in the 2000s. RBC Trends explains what role spacecraft accounts play in the evolution of scientific communication and how they change attitudes toward science.
What are Mars Rover Twitters?
Rover Twitters are the official Twitter accounts (now X) operated by NASA on behalf of Mars rovers such as Curiosity and Perseverance, and previously Spirit and Opportunity. These accounts post first-person accounts about the adventures of the rovers on Mars.
The format began to develop in 2008, when NASA launched the account @MarsPhoenix — the first “talking” rover. It posted first-person updates during its mission at the North Pole of Mars. @MarsPhoenix soon became the fifth most popular account on the entire social network, with more than 38,000 subscribers.
In 2009, the @MarsRovers (@SpiritandOppy) account appeared, uniting the missions of the Spirit and Opportunity rovers. Their tweets humorously described the working days of the devices and tragically told about the end of the missions. The most popular Twitter account among readers was @MarsCuriosity, which was created in 2012. It gave birth to many memes thanks to the rover’s humorous posts and selfies, and over the years of its existence, it has gained more than 4 million subscribers.
In 2020, @NASAPersevere was added to the account, describing the rover’s epic landing and the work of the first Martian helicopter.
What do you remember about them?
Posts on the rovers’ accounts have repeatedly evoked a wide response from the audience and even become “cultural phenomena.”
Opportunity’s Last Words
In 2019, the Opportunity rover tweeted, “My battery is low and it’s getting dark.” The rover was saying goodbye to the public after operating for 15 years instead of the planned 90 days. The message caused a huge emotional response , with users comparing it to the last words of a lone explorer before his death. After that, the hashtag @GoodNightOppy quickly gained popularity on Twitter, and in 2022, a documentary of the same name, Goodnight Oppy, was released , in which the rover appears similar to the Pixar cartoon character Wall-E .
Successful landing and first steps of Perseverance
In 2021, the Perseverance rover announced its successful landing on Mars to the world: “Hello, world. My first look at my forever home. #CountdownToMars.” In addition to the poetry of the tweet, users noticed the use of “Hello, world,” the first phrase that novice programmers learn to write using code. In addition, the message was accompanied by photos of Mars. The tweet collected more than 800 thousand likes and hundreds of thousands of reposts.
A little later, Perseverance delighted followers with its first steps: “I’m moving! Just took my first test drive on Mars, and checking out my new wheels. So far, so good.” The animation of the tire tracks delighted viewers as the rover officially began its journey on Mars.
In the summer of 2025, Perseverance sent back new images. The NASA team took advantage of clear weather on the Red Planet to take one of the clearest panoramas in the history of the mission. The image consists of 96 images taken from the same location but at different angles. The photo shows rocks, the boundary between two geological formations, and hills located up to 40 miles (65 km) apart. In the processed version, the Martian sky looks surprisingly clear and deceptively blue, while in the natural-color version it is reddish.
Perseverance also discovered a curious rock on the surface of Mars, shaped like a volcano or a battle helmet. Its surface is covered with irregularities and inclusions, which makes it look like ancient armor. There is a theory that such formations could have formed on Mars when groundwater passed through porous sedimentary rocks.
Curiosity jokes
In 2013, the Curiosity spacecraft made its subscribers laugh by singing the song Happy Birthday to itself: “Happy birthday to me… Wait, how do I know it’s my birthday? Earth told me. I don’t have a cake, but here’s a selfie!”
In this way, Curiosity “celebrated” the anniversary of its mission, and the device’s self-portrait became a meme. After that, the rover began to regularly publish auto-congratulations, and fans joined them.
Already in 2022, the device pulled off another funny trick, finding a “doorway”: “Sure, it looks like a tiny door. But really, it’s a natural rock formation. Still… anyone home?” The photo of the strange gap in the rock gave rise to theories and memes about “ Martian doors ,” and NASA had to explain that it was just the result of erosion.
Spirit Incidents
Another rover, Spirit, also liked to turn serious situations into funny ones. In 2009, when the rover got stuck in sand, it wrote, “I’m not stuck. I’m just… conducting long-term traction research. Yeah. That’s the story.” In reality, things were so bad that Spirit had to end its mission.
What are Mars rovers’ twitter feeds for?
The American space agency came up with the idea of Mars rover Twitters for a reason: it is a strategy that combines popularization of science with storytelling and social media trends. Rovers gain followers on social media, including celebrities, and the rovers themselves use popular online phrases to be closer to the audience. In addition, social media provides an opportunity for feedback, bringing science closer to the general public.
The characters from the children’s show “Sesame Street” ask NASA to send them to the moon (Photo: x.com)
NASA employees acknowledged that their main goal is to keep people interested in missions that can last months, if not years. They noted that they carefully worked on the personality and character of each rover. For example, in the case of Perseverance, specialists decided to think through the rover’s “hobbies” in advance: photography, collecting rocks, and off-road driving.
NASA highlights several key aspects of this trend:
popularizing science through stories “about the complex in simple terms” – Mars rovers’ Twitter feeds provide fascinating insights into missions, discoveries, and technologies;
Direct communication with the audience – people can follow the research of the devices in real time, like a reality show, and also ask questions and write comments, knowing that they will receive feedback;
wide reach – popular posts on social networks can gain millions of views, and the audience of accounts expands due to reposts, while specialized resources are visited only by researchers or space enthusiasts;
appeal to emotions – social media can be used to publish posts that will touch the audience’s feelings, such as memes or the “last words” of devices.
Such strategies turn rovers into “bloggers” from another planet, bringing science closer to people and attracting new audiences, the space agency explains . NASA’s approach to running its rovers’ Twitter feeds has won awards on multiple occasions . In 2012, @MarsCuriosity won the Shorty Award for best government use of social media. @MarsPhoenix also won the same award in 2009.
There are already several studies that confirm that such an approach not only popularizes science through anthropomorphization (humanization) of spacecraft, but also changes the way people perceive technology – through emotions and humor. Thus, Opportunity’s tweet about “death” gained many times more reposts than regular news about the completion of the mission. Researchers come to the conclusion that social networks have changed science and scientific communication.
They also note that anthropomorphized communication makes it easier to understand complex concepts, and people are more likely to remember information presented through stories with characters. Some authors have even suggested including NASA tweets in educational materials for children and adolescents to increase their engagement in the learning process.
However, some researchers emphasize that anthropomorphism in science has its pitfalls: people begin to attribute consciousness to inanimate objects and can overreact to negative events. They also found that users often had difficulty recognizing when tweets were about robots rather than people. In the case of Opportunity , users mistakenly perceived the news about the “death” of the rover as a message about the death of a person in 63% of cases. Supporters of this point of view do not reject the approach as such, but advocate for the conscious use of anthropomorphism.
