publicity - which Zubrin is a master at attracting - isn't the same thing as interest; which on a fundamental gut/financing level he isn't achieving, in large part because noone sees the cost/benefits he claims are obvious in a program everyone except him sees as just another unsustainable Apollo. I think just about every year since the MarsSoc was formed, the convention has attracted less interest (& less customers); but every year the same tired obsessions that we really must commit to a manned Mars program etc are wheeled out with religious fervour. It's gone beyond a joke out in the real world; which is why this acknowledgement that the MarsSoc may have gotten the politics of their program basically wrong was a useful first step to them perhaps actually doing something.

Stop talking about the public interest in Mars & start proving it. If there's interest - real financial interest: not repackaged NASA footage broadcast on Discovery on Saturday afternoons because they don't have to pay for it - prove it by attracting real money to the program. Don't be content to build your program by raiding other people's science funds (which is all Mars seems to have done to date) - go out there & actually sell your agenda & prove me - & all the other Mars skeptics - wrong. If you do that, i for one will congratulate you on your success; but if you can't bring new money to the table - if all you can do is cannibalise other projects to keep a overpriced underachieving MEP floundering - stop abusing everyone who doesn't share your fantasies.

Of course, this is probably another rant without support to you. That's your problem; & only indirectly mine.