This is relevant to my blog because (a) it moved me, and (b) it’s about passionate people engaging other earthlings about incredible technology.

The Mars Phoenix has been “twittering” for months.  Or more correctly, its team has been twittering in the “voice” of the Phoenix for months.  So I’ve followed the lander as it updates us back on Earth about how it’s hangin’ on the surface of another planet.

The lander is about to go into “Lazarus mode,” and unlikely to wake up again during the next Martian summer.  And so Mars Phoenix twittered:

“Many questions about next Martian summer and will I wake up? It is beyond expectations. But if it happens you’ll be among the 1st to know”

and then, stepping out of character,

“In case we don’t get this chance again, thank you all so much for the questions, comments & good wishes over the mission. It’s been awesome.”

I was almost choked up by what might be the Phoenix’s final posts.  Does that sentence read as a confession?  We all knew it was going to pass away shut down eventually.

Today, there are over 37,000 followers of the Phoenix twitter feed, and at least one guy in Toronto who’s moved to hear the Phoenix is going to sleep, perchance to dream, and possibly for good.

Thanks to the Phoenix team’s Twitter personality, I’ve been engaged more frequently and deeply than I ever expected. And I don’t even Twitter.