Would be interesting to see some analysis from a public relations point of view why that was the case. From a technical standpoint, both Cassini and Galileo di

Would be interesting to see some analysis from a public relations point of view why that was the case. From a technical standpoint, both Cassini and Galileo did Earth gravity assists. The argument was that an error in navigation could cause them to hit Earth on such a flyby. While RTGs were designed to remain contained on launch failure they wouldn't survive such a high-speed reentry. Another (much less realistic) fear I heard was that the plutonium in their RTGs could ignite fusion in the cores of Jupiter or Saturn when the probes were dumped into their atmospheres. Neither of these two concerns apply to Mars rovers.