Online Public Relations Thoughts

The essence of good PR is to communicate about what an organization or individual has done that positions them favorably with target audiences.  It is not making up facts and stories.  That publicity and propaganda.  NASA and JPL are practicing superlative PR with the Perseverance rover on Mars.  They already have 16,000 images of the vehicle landing and operating on the surface.  They are releasing these photos to an eager public wanting to see how the robot got there and what the surface of the Red Planet is like.  The two organizations could withhold these pictures if they wanted to, but they are sensitive to public demand to give the photos wide distribution.  The result is that it has positioned them as two planets' experts in complex rover technology -- earth and Mars.  From a scientific perspective, there is no better spot to be in.  JPL, especially, has its pick of world-class engineers and scientists to construct, launch and land these robots and a budget to make it happen again.