There’s a nice piece in the NYTimes about the increased levels of public participation in recent Mars landings. A big part of the reason is that given a large, interested population with broadband connections, NASA officials have done their best to share every bit of data, image, and video they can online, and as a result thousands of websites have cropped up including those by laymen colorizing images and even weblogs written from the rover’s point of view.

Thanks to NASA sharing every bit of information they can online, the experience of watching the Mars landing and exploration for students and observers today is a far cry from the days of the moon landing. Instead of a one-way communication delivered by grainy video on television, we have an interactive, two-way process where the viewer can help scientists on the other side of the globe and take in information along with millions of others, sharing their own interpretations online.