I am sorry I am duplicating part of a post, but it is relevant. NASA has kindly assisted us with out first priority in the PTP path with their news release yesterday.
Last night, on news stations throughout the world, the mainstream public were told that there is water on both the Moon and Mars and they accepted it without a moments hesitation.
This could not be better timing for the upcoming release of Mr Skippers book.
The public now believes that water exists, so they should be more willing to accept free flowing water on Mars in the form of rivers and lakes as well as the associated bio-life evidence with that discovery. The journey should not be so hard for the PTP in the months to come as we can thank NASA for a kick-start to our Media campaign. I think we need to strike while the iron is hot and I am sure that Mr Skipper will be releasing the pre-launch publicity (with our help if needed) to the media as quickly as possible to take advantage of this unexpected gift !
Example of the release taken from a Reuters news report
Four reports published in Friday's issue of the journal Science show clear evidence of water, likely frozen, on the desert surfaces of both the Moon and Mars.
There is now no dispute that water exists on the surface of Mars -- robot explorers have found ice. There is also evidence that water may still seep to the surface from underground, although it quickly disappears in the cold, thin atmosphere of the red planet. Planetary scientists have also seen what could be the shores of giant rivers and seas on Mars.
Today's announcement is the first to reveal newly deposited material apparently carried by fluids after earlier imaging of the same gullies. The two sites are inside craters in the Terra Sirenum and the Centauri Montes regions of southern Mars.
The atmosphere of Mars is so thin and the temperature so cold that liquid water cannot persist at the surface. It would rapidly evaporate or freeze. Researchers propose that water could remain liquid long enough, after breaking out from an underground source, to carry debris downslope before totally freezing.
"These fresh deposits suggest that at some places and times on present-day Mars, liquid water is emerging from beneath the ground and briefly flowing down the slopes. This possibility raises questions about how the water would stay melted below ground, how widespread it might be, and whether there's a below-ground wet habitat conducive to life. Future missions may provide the answers," said Malin.