Lessons from Mars on the rhetoric of space travel

The first I knew of Nasa's discovery of water on Mars was in this admirably succinct tweet from my colleague Neil McIntosh.

Breaking news... NASA confirm finding water on Mars. One of *the* great moments of space exploration, right there, tonight. Wow.

And the first he knew of it was from following the Mars Phoenix twitter feed.

But no one yet, to my knowledge, has remarked on the deleterious effects of Twitter on standards of public rhetoric.