We haven't had a press briefing or conference in months... anyone else think Opportunities eventual (hopefully) arrival and exporation at Victoria Crater deserves one? If oppy makes it ok, it would, in my opinion at least, make it one of the greatest achievements in the history of planetary exploration and certainly deserves some public/press recognition. Doug, maybe you could ask if the rover team are planning anything?

The MER team needs a big splash to ignite the public's interest in this project again -- Victoria has the best shot of doing that, but they need to generate some press.

Those who care about such things have never lost interest. They have followed the project from the beginning. As for the rest.... who cares? Their attention will be held for a nanosecond, then they'll find another ball to bounce around their playpen.

Science should not have to resort to being the Flavour of the Month.

Brian

This isn't really true. There are plenty of folks that may have been visiting the official NASA sites at the beginning of the mission that have just let checking up on Mars slip from their daily routines, and there are those that really only do get their news from traditional sources. Don't assume that everyone who finds this endeavour worthwhile also finds it worth paying close attention to.

That's not really what I meant, but nevermind.

Victoria is really going to be the Glaze on the Cherry on the Icing of the Cake for the MER program. I was looking back through the board to the first Q&D Endurance NavCam pans recently, and had forgotten just how exciting and dramatic it was to see into that crater for the first time. I am itching now to get to Victoria and I think interest* is going to erupt when Oppy gets there.

I have a feeling it will be the last hurrah for Oppy.

*I wonder how it will compare to the Husband Hill summit surge?

I imagine the same story as happened for Husband hill - a press conf, pretty pictures, review of recent science..perhaps around the S1K mark ?

Doug

I didn't say you had to be a Marsaholic. Whether you check on a daily or weekly or monthly basis, whether you get the information on-line or from newsmagazines or science shows on TV, you are still interested and following the mission, and you are finding ways to get the information at the level that interests you from a variety of sources.

The comment was made, we need a big splashy press conference to revive "public interest". The point I wanted to make without being overly verbose, was that trumpeting the pictures from the rim of VC through CNN or the BBC or the front page of the daily papers will have very little effect on generating sustainable interest in the project, or space exploration in general. Most people will view it with a "Well, isn't that neat?" sort of perspective, then not give it another thought. On the downside, it will invariably draw the ire of a handful who feel that money would have been better spent feeding the poor or curing cancer instead of going to stare into a big hole in the ground.

Sure a big public announcement will be a nice thing to do. I'm not saying, don't do it. Just don't have this expectation of a big upside. If the goal is to have the public at large keen on such missions, and being vocal in their support of providing sufficient funding, I just don't see a press conference from VC making much difference. We already have a staggering amount of information available to the public that wants it.

Brian

The point needs to be made that all of that money was spent right here on Earth, creating jobs and expanding human knowledge. It's not like this is some sort of interplanetary foreign aid program where we're just pouring money into that (very pretty) hole in the ground.

good point very well put

Google Trends will graph "interest" in a query of your choice. I ran a few based on Mars and the MERs, and all of them showed one major spike at the time they landed and almost nothing since then. In terms of whatever it is measuring, the landing seems to have solidly trumped everything since then.

Overlayed a few typical search phrases ( MER, Mars Rover, Spirit, Opportunity ) and got this lot - I've tried to tie in key events to match the peaks. Notice the 1st Mars Birthday kicked a huge media response but little search response.

I think the top bar (searches) is a measure of public interest, and the bottom bar is a measure of press coverage - and to be fair - the press have spiked at many major events, whereas public interest has not.

Doug

True, but it's better press than the "$400M Mars Mission Fails" Don't you love how when anything goes wrong, the total mission cost makes the first sentence, but when things go right, the information is irrelevant?

Just ONCE I want to see the total cost trumpeted in a press article reporting good news. "$400M Mars Mission Fantastic Bargain" rather than "NASA Shows off Crater Photos."

I think search volume may be a poor measure of interest in the program. Most people who are interested already know where the Mer site is. How much time do the marsaholics here spend googling. I usually check a few bookmarks or come here to see what someone else has spotted. A hit count of the MER site would be a better measure.

Bingo - so no big wavey press conf. is going to change anything

Doug