JPL deserves a kick in the butt

Rant
I love your outreach JPL. No one ever replies to emails, you never post
faq's, are slow to produce data, you hold boring press conferences with
no direction or insightful commentary (except Squyres/Bell when they are
not too tired), take weekends off, loll about for three days between
press conferences, and allow the adoption of a hyper-conservative
outlook. Get Bill Nye up there. Look what has been accomplished!!!
Get some enthusiasm and spread it about!

Why take weekends off your public outreach duties when the teams are
actively at work with MER-A and -B on Mars? This is not fathomable.
Every day something interesting happens it should be released with great
fanfare. Don't you want more money for the next MER's?

It seems tax dollars spent on space are spent to enable elite, well
established scientists and engineers to play in their sandbox while
believing their wisdom too great to bestow on ordinary mortals. Is this
the way the public's money should be spent? For shame. Put the public
interest near the top of the priority list! Need an example? Look at
MSSS!! They are responsive, allow unprecedented public input (you can
point the spacecraft at a target), friendly, and completely on top of
their game. Every day a new image with insightful commentary.

The only consolation? ESA is completely unfriendly. They are truly the
worlds worst communicators. But Europeans don't seem to object -- they
are used to being treated like mushrooms.

/Rant

Hi:

mlm wrote:
The only consolation? ESA is completely unfriendly. They are truly the
worlds worst communicators. But Europeans don't seem to object -- they
are used to being treated like mushrooms.

ESO press releases are very good ones, and ESA has built a good web site,
but is well behind NASA (less resources, too). By the way, I'm european and
I have complained.

Good nights... of good observing!

--
Víctor R. Ruiz
http://barrapunto.com/~rvr/bitacora