Science Communication in Space Research Jocelyne Landeau-Constantin European Space Agency Head of Communication Office, ESA Darmstadt, Germany Dublin 10/07/2012.

Science Communication in Space Research

Jocelyne Landeau-Constantin

European Space Agency

Head of Communication Office, ESA Darmstadt, Germany

Dublin

10/07/2012

ESA IN A NUTSHELL

Since 1975, the European Space Agency (ESA) has

been shaping space programmes for its Member

States in Europe.

It implements decisions taken with a strong

involvement of industry and scientific

organisations.

ESA IN A NUTSHELL

ESA is an intergovernmental organisation with a mandate to

• develop space industry in Europe and make it competitive,

• increase knowledge and technology

AND

• inform citizens

• Over 40 years of experience

• 19 Member States

• 5 establishments in Europe, about 2200 staff

• 4 billion Euro budget (2012)

• Over 70 satellites designed, tested and operated in flight

• 17 scientific satellites in operation

• 6 types of launcher developed

• Celebrated the 200th launch of Ariane in February 2011

ESA FACTS AND FIGURES

ESA has 19 Member States: 17 states of the EU (AT, BE, CZ, DE, DK, ES, FI, FR, IT, GR, IE, LU, NL, PT, RO, SE, UK) + Norway and Switzerland.

Eight other EU states have Cooperation Agreements with ESA: Estonia, Slovenia, Poland, Hungary, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania and the Slovak Republic.

Bulgaria and Malta are negotiating Cooperation Agreements.

Canada takes part in some programmes under a Cooperation Agreement.

19 MEMBER STATES AND GROWING

• Space science

• Human spaceflight

• Exploration

• Earth observation

• Launchers

ESA is one of the few space agencies in the world to

combine responsibility in nearly all areas of space activity.

ACTIVITIES

• Navigation

• Telecommunications

• Technology

• Operations

COMMUNICATION ISSUES

• Diversity of activities

• Complexity of themes

• Languages and culture

• Means

• Science communication is new

What are the possibilities to catch the attention?

•Talk to the media•Talk to the public•Talk to students

1. INTERVIEWS

ESA co-ordinates over 2,000 interviews per year in more

than five languages.

Media remains a prime channel for communication, but has

to be carefully selected and dealt with.

Though TV is still the best multiplicator, it is no longer the

preferred source of information, especially among young

people.

Social networks are mandatory but not well understood

among scientific organisations.

COMMUNICATING WITH MEDIA


2. SPACE SCIENCE TALKS

A classical format gathering media and scientists around a space mission for two days. The science expected from the mission is detailed and all presentations are worked out with the scientists until the level is acceptable for a non-technical journalist, but high enough for a specialised one.


3. ACCESS TO AUDIO VISUAL DATABASE

No science communication without good audio-visual inputs, especially animations.

www.esa.int/gallery

www.dlr.de

www.jpl.nasa.gov/spaceimages/

eol.jsc.nasa.gov/

www.eso.org

www.eumetsat.int

www.cnes.fr

www.esf.org

COMMUNICATING WITH THE PUBLIC Social Media on the rise

1st European

Space Tweet up

ESA/DLR

Document title | Author Name | Place | Data doc | Programme | Pag. 12


In depth podcasts: raumzeit

The podcast in German deals in depth with all sorts of space themes, space debris, earth observation, astronomy, careers during up to 2 hours. It addresses people interested in details of a space-related topics.

The podcast was born 18 months ago and has now reached one million downloads. http://raumzeit-podcast.de


ESA WebTV

COMMUNICATING WITH THE GENERAL PUBLIC

LONG NIGHT OF STARS/NIGHT OF

RESEARCH/SPACE DAYS

Duration: eight hours

Cooperation with local radio

Benefits: direct access to engineers and

scientists; no limitation of age

Complex programme with thematic

animations, games for children, quizz Research Night, ESRIN, Italy


Science Day

Combined presentations with astronauts, scientists and local radio stations at a central venue.

Q&A session at the end of the evening.


Participation in fairs

Heiner Fest, Darmstadt, Germany: 700.000 visitors in four days



• Perry Rhodan World Con 2011, Sci-Fi Convention, 3000 participants

• Shopping Malls and Railway stations exhibitions

• Mars exploration exhibition, duration: 3 years, combined information and hands-on, DE, AT

COMMUNICATING WITH THE GENERAL PUBLIC – Entering partnerships

Cooperation with museums

www.esa.int/exhibitions

www.flickr.com/photos/esaexhibitions

ESA has developed exhibitions

concept which can be used by

museums or science houses. The idea

is to create a space environment which

can be adapted to the needs and

specificities or the customer.


The Ecsite Annual Conference is the most prominent meeting of science communication professionals in Europe, bringing together 1,000 professionals in the field.

http://www.ecsite.eu

Ecsite Workshop, Toulouse, June 2012

COMMUNICATING WITH SCHOOLS

Mission-X is being organised for every human spaceflight mission with an aim to foster healthy food and sport habits. Schools are invited to participate for several weeks.


ESA supports an education programme at corporate and directorate level.

ESA invests in local national organisations, which relay information and organise activities for teachers and schools.


It does not interfere directly with school programmes and rather invites the faculty to draw upon the existing resources, information centres or web pages with a lot of material available.

At directorate level, specific material is produced around a space mission, for Earth Observation and human spaceflight.

http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Eduspace_EN

http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Education


Multiply partnerships with foundations and media

Wissen in die Schule, Klaus Tschira Foundation: organises regular courses for teachers on astronomy. ESA has supported several actions on the occasion of the Herschel/Planck Missions.

Esa is offering many possibilities to download

raw pictures for any school students to process

for arts or physics for instance. Have a look at

the Mars Express Webcam website. http://webservices.esa.int/blog/blog/6


Teachers Workshop

10 -13 July 2012Participants from Europe are presented with innovative and inspiring methods using space as a means for engaging students with the sciences.

COMMUNICATING WITH SCHOOLS AND CHILDREN

Cooperation with Google and Youtube

NASA, JAXA and ESA participated in a space

Competition organised by Google and Youtube

In 2012 inviting 14 to 18 years old to propose

Their experiments to be flown onboard the ISS.

The jury chose the winners among ….. Entries

And the trailers were seen 35 million times.

COMMUNICATING WITH THE GENERAL PUBLIC – using pictures

Herschel shows the marvels of our space environment.

Document title | Author Name | Place | Data doc | Programme | Pag. 28


Mississipi river


Phytoplankton bloom across the Barents Sea off the coast of mainland Europe’s most northern point, Cape Nordkinn


Partnerships represent a strong part of the communication policy as the general public needs to be picked up where it is:

•In public transportation: Cooperation with the German Railways, Lufthansa, Air France, the Madrid Tube


• With the media: El Pais, Liberation, T-Online


Games and Promotional items

It is possible to obtain a licensing agreement with ESA to produce branded clothing and promotional items such as:

•Card games (Quartet game) with satellites and rockets

•Planet Hunters, Campagames

•3D Memo, Campagames


Cooperation with toy producer Imaginarium


A planetarium show was developed in cooperation with German-speaking planetarium on the occasion of the launch of the astronomy missions Herschel and Planck in 2009.

Starting with 32 planetariums in Austria, Germany and Switzerland, the show has now spread to over 70 planetariums in the world and exists in 7 languages.

A new show will be prepared for the launch of the Gaia satellite end of 2013.

COMMUNICATING WITH THE GENERAL PUBLIC - CROWDSOURCING

THANK YOU

Jocelyne Landeau-Constantin

Communicating Science for Space [email protected]

Science Communication in Space Research Jocelyne Landeau-Constantin European Space Agency Head of Communication Office, ESA Darmstadt, Germany Dublin 10/07/2012.

Documents

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