re: Remember Keith Cowing?
You can follow what Keith is doing at his NASAWatch website. I don't see the harm in these things that some people do. At best, it will teach us something about how people live and work together, like Antarctic expeditions do, and maybe some science. At worst it at least gets interest up, particularly in people not now interested in space. Kind of like Space Camps.
I can tell you that a mockup manned rover at a recent display drew a lot more interest than tables with photos of probes and literature.