This is not a NASA Website. You might learn something. It's YOUR space agency. Get involved. Take it back. Make it work - for YOU.
News

Why Are MSL PR Materials Not Openly Available?

By Keith Cowing
NASA Watch
July 19, 2012
Filed under ,

NASA Administrator Bolden’s Remarks from the “Go Curiosity” Video
“We’ve put together some materials that will help you tell this fascinating story to your family, friends, and neighbors, because no doubt, they’ll be asking you as the NASA expert, no matter what your job is with the agency. “It’s a pretty straightforward story, and we should all be happy and proud to talk about it. So we’ve sent your supervisors some materials that you can use to answer questions and relay your excitement about working for NASA.”
Keith’s note: If Charlie Bolden really trusts all of his employees to honestly and openly convey their exctement about MSL, then why are these materials only sent to supervisors – and not sent directly to all NASA employees? In addition, this website communications.nasa.gov/marstoolkit is mentioned but taxpayers are not allowed to access it. Why is Charlie being less than open about what these materials are?

NASA Watch founder, Explorers Club Fellow, ex-NASA, Away Teams, Journalist, Space & Astrobiology, Lapsed climber.

18 responses to “Why Are MSL PR Materials Not Openly Available?”

  1. Richard H. Shores says:
    0
    0

    Like anything at NASA these days, it does not make sense. The news media needs to put the heat on the PAO.

  2. Oscar_Femur says:
    0
    0

    I’m not a supervisor or even a civil servant but I received the email directly…

  3. bobhudson54 says:
    0
    0

    All this secrecy on NASA’s part, causes conspiracy theories to be developed and they have no one else to blame for this. Why are important materials being withheld from the public’s access? The PAO and the administration are to blame for all the cloak and dagger that’s apparent and being exhibited. My faith in the once and true NASA is and has been slowly dissolving into the “Never A Straight Answer” slogan among conspiracy theorist and its getting worse due to their more “closed door” attitudes being exhibited today. 

  4. JamieH says:
    0
    0

    Supervisors did not even receive the “materials” as mentioned. My thought… someone forgot to edit the message before sending it out. 

  5. bdunbar_nasa says:
    0
    0

    The Mars Toolkit is publicly available at http://solarsystem.nasa.gov….

    Brian Dunbar
    Office of Communications

    • Steve Whitfield says:
      0
      0

      Brian,

      Are we to assume that the page your link goes to, which is titled “Mars Rover Landing 2012” is the Mars Toolkit? There is no “Mars Toolkit” listed anywhere on the page, and searching SSE from its home page returns no instances of Mars Toolkit at all. The two links in your second post say Mars Toolkit, but lead to this same page. This is the sort of thing that we are finding very frustrating. It would have taken less than a minute to write one post that made things perfectly clear instead of adding ambiguity.

       Steve

      • bdunbar_nasa says:
        0
        0

        You can get to it via the main MSL page (http://www.nasa.gov/mission…. In the MSL Resources box in the center, the last link is to the toolkit.

        • Steve Whitfield says:
          0
          0

          I give up.

          Folks — I guess the answer to my question is, yes.  The “Mars Toolkit” is apparently actually called “Mars Rover Landing 2012.”  There is no page/item called “Mars Toolkit.”

          And, apparently, working in the Office of Communications does not involve reading.

          Steve

          • bdunbar_nasa says:
            0
            0

            Fair enough. Enjoy your weekend.

          • Steve Whitfield says:
            0
            0

            Brian,

            My apologies for being cranky.  I was out of line.

            Steve

          • bdunbar_nasa says:
            0
            0

            No problem. Been there a few times myself.

          • Marc Boucher says:
            0
            0

            Steve, the toolkit is the aggregate of all the information and links on Brian’s original link. That was not made clear to those not familiar with the “Toolkit” contained.

          • Steve Whitfield says:
            0
            0

            Thanks Marc.

            It’s often quite confusing being on the outside.  Outsiders have to work harder getting clarification so as to to avoid assumptions and misunderstandings, lest the guy in the next post shoot us down. Thanks for the clarification.

            Steve

  6. bdunbar_nasa says:
    0
    0

    Forgot to add, there are links to the toolkit on http://www.nasa.gov/mars and http://www.nasa.gov/msl.

    Brian Dunbar

    • bdunbar_nasa says:
      0
      0

      Interesting that the post above seemed to appear immediately, but my first post was held for moderation. In any case, the toolkit is publicly available at:

      http://solarsystem.nasa.gov

      Brian Dunbar
      Office of Communications.

  7. Steve Pemberton says:
    0
    0

    I almost had to pull out Keith’s chart that he made a couple of months ago, but it didn’t quite come to that and I was eventually able to figure out where people starting out at http://www.nasa.gov (and without Mr. Dunbar’s help) would be able to find information on MSL including the MSL toolkit.  What I discovered is that there is a lot of information about MSL scattered about in various places on different NASA sites, most of it being on the JPL MSL webpage and the NASA Missions/MSL page, and you can find several of the articles and videos on other locations as well.  Being scattered about like that may not sound very good, but it actually works out okay because in many cases the same information and videos are on more than one site, such as the press kits as well as videos such as the “Seven Minutes of Terror” video which was discussed on another thread.  So whatever site people start out on they should have no trouble finding a lot of info on MSL as well as links to the main sites.   

    What is a bit harder is if someone just wants some basic facts, i.e. when, where, what etc. and they don’t feel like reading the 63 page press kit or running through a bunch of links to piece together the basic information.  That’s where something like the toolkit can come in handy, which presumably was Charlie’s intention, or whoever the “we” is that he refers to when he says “We’ve put together some materials”

    However the now infamous toolkit that we are discussing is not very much front and center and so it would be pretty easy to miss in my opinion.  I couldn’t find a link to it on the JPL site, only on the NASA Missions/MSL site.  And on that page it wasn’t all that prominent.  In the “MSL Resources” box on that page there is a list of items, the last one being “Mars Toolkit – Everything You Need to Tell Your Friends About Curiosity Landing!”  

    I think some may be thrown by the title and not click on the link.  In reality even someone without any friends would find it a handy site.  What Charlie and others refer to as a “toolkit for telling your friends” is in reality just a nice little page titled “Mars Rover Landing 2012”  which is hidden away on the Solar System Exploration website (solarsystem.nasa.gov), a site which itself seems to be somewhat hidden from view among the higher profile NASA sites.  I am not sure how many people would normally stumble across this site on their own, the only way that I could find it from the NASA home page is to click on NASA Directorates and Offices, then underneath that click on Science which takes you to science.nasa.gov.  Then click on Planets, then on the Planets page underneath Related Content click Solar System Exploration.  Now you have made it to the Solar System Exploration page but where is the toolkit?  You click on News and Events, the eighth item on that list is Mars Landing 2012.  Click on that and congratulations, you are now on the page referred to elsewhere (although not here) as the Mars Toolkit.

    The Mars Rover Landing 2012 page (aka Toolkit) contains quick basic information, videos, press kits and other materials, along with links to the main MSL sites for those who want more.  I think more people would like it than will actually find it.  Then again I’m more of a meat and potatoes type who doesn’t go in much for the splashier websites like the JPL MSL website, I guess I can’t speak for everyone and so maybe the Toolkit has a much smaller audience.  But I still think it should be a little easier to find.