The Mars Society website is very interesting. It is a private, political organization trying to convince congress to send a manned mission to Mars. To have a society entirely devoted to such an endeavor, surprised me. I just wouldn't have thought enough people would be that motivated to do such a thing. The content of the website looks very professional. It is not flashy like Space.com, but it has more information. There are a ton of scholarly articles about Mars that you can access. A lot of them have to do with Martian life and sending a manned mission there, but they are still interesting. The articles by Zubrin on the site are well thought out. They are far from mainstream interests, but they bring up interesting points. All in all, the website provides some useful information about Mars and if you really want to help or just know about the status of a manned Mars mission, this is the place to go.
The Enterprise Mission website on first glance looks, well sketchy. Even the name of the site (a subtle tribute to Star Trek) is a little too outlandish to take seriously. On further reading, my initial impression was not altered. The site is a collection of some truths and a lot of wild ideas about Mars. These people believe we are going to Mars, but what they think we will find is ridiculous. Hoagland's writings are just as bad as the rest of the site. They are full of unsubstantiated conjectures and improbable ideas. If you are a very credible person, you might believe him, but I am not one of those people. Any site that starts talking about a government conspiracy, especially in relation to alien life, just loses all credibility. Hoagland may be a real scientist, but this site he is supporting is not good science.
I would characterize the two sites as two ends of the spectrum of Mars websites. The Mars Society is very cautious, but active in getting new research done so that theories can be proven (or not). The Enterprise Mission spouts tons of theories, but does not seem to be doing anything to prove them. To use a very apt analogy, if the Mars Society is Newsweek, the Enterprise Mission is Weekly World News. The Enterprise Mission may have some valid facts buried on its site, but I just cannot take it seriously. I may visit the Mars Society website again, the same is not true of the Enterprise Mission, if I can help it.
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