How hard was it to convince corporations to donate bandwidth and assist with the Pathfinder site?
GOODALL: It wasn’t hard to convince them at all because they saw the tremendous marketing potential. The only constraint was that we couldn’t use corporate logos on our web pages. There are very strict Federal regulations preventing JPL from appearing to endorse a company or to favor one company over another. There are all these fair competition laws that we must adhere to. CLICKZ: How much increased press coverage of the mission do you think NASA and JPL received because of having the real time Pathfinder site? GOODALL: I don’t know, it’s hard to say. I’ve been told it made a big difference, being able to get on the Internet and see the actual data for yourself. I think it terms of public relations it was the biggest mission since the first moon landing. No NASA mission has been covered to the extent of Mars Pathfinder since Neil Armstrong walked on the moon. I’m pretty sure even the first shuttle launch wasn’t covered this well. It was really an amazing experience. I have to say that
