sign in sign up
<<
Home , Hayabusa, Philae (spacecraft), Phoenix (spacecraft), Rosetta (spacecraft)

How a Cartoon Series Helped the Public Care about Best Practice and

Claudia Mignone Anne-Mareike Homfeld Sebastian Marcu Vitrociset Belgium for European Space ATG Europe for European Space Design & Data GmbH Agency (ESA) Agency (ESA) [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] Carlo Palazzari Emily Baldwin Markus Bauer Design & Data GmbH EJR-Quartz for (ESA) European Space Agency (ESA) [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] Keywords Karen S. O’Flaherty Mark McCaughrean Outreach, space , public engagement, EJR-Quartz for European Space Agency (ESA) European Space Agency (ESA) visual storytelling, fairy-tale, cartoon, , [email protected] [email protected] anthropomorphising

Once upon a time... is a series of short cartoons1 that have been developed as part of the European Space Agency’s communication campaign to raise awareness about the Rosetta mission. The series features two anthropomorphic characters depicting the Rosetta orbiter and Philae , introducing the mission story, goals and milestones with a fairy- tale flair. This article explores the development of the cartoon series and the level of engagement it generated, as well as presenting various issues that were encountered using this approach. We also examine how different audiences responded to our decision to anthropomorphise the spacecraft.

Introduction internet before the spacecraft came out of exciting highlights to come, using the fairy- hibernation (Bauer et al., 2016). The four tale narrative as a base. The hope was that In late 2013, the European Space Agency’s short videos were commissioned from the video would help to build a degree of (ESA) team of science ­communicators the cross-media company Design & Data human empathy between the public and devised a number of outreach activ- GmbH (D&D). They were intended to pro- Rosetta. ities to engage the general public in mote a Wake Up, Rosetta! campaign, run the Rosetta mission, which was about by ESA, in which members of the public The team originally envisioned a combi- to reach three milestones the following were invited to take part in a competition nation of illustrations and original footage year: waking up from hibernation, and by creating wake-up videos and sending from the mission presented in the style both ­rendezvousing with and landing them to ESA, symbolically helping to wake of a storybook, which would be released on 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko the spacecraft. The top prizes included shortly before the winter holiday in advance (Comet ­67P/C-G). However, the space- an invitation to the comet-landing event in of the spacecraft’s wake-up call in January. craft was launched in 2004, and had been November (O’Flaherty et al., 2016). The aim was to engage a wide public, but in hibernation­ — meaning no contact with particularly school-age children. — for almost three years, and it is fair One of the four short films used imagery to say that by 2013, it was known, but only related to alarm clocks, while a further two The ESA team drafted the initial storyline to a specialised audience of space science involved asking people on the streets of for the Once upon a time… video and then professionals and enthusiasts. European cities to send a wake-up mes- worked with the creative team at D&D sage to Rosetta, and what they normally on further development. D&D suggested Several activities were specifically designed did after waking up. These were both producing the video as a fully-fledged ­ to highlight Rosetta’s expected exit from straightforward and direct. The fourth cartoon, embracing the benefits of visual hibernation on 20 January 2014. The pur- film played off the idea that some of the storytelling to make the mission more pose of these activities, aimed at different ­mission themes — the long adventure, the accessible. They built on the original ESA target groups, was to (re)kindle goal of unlocking the mysteries of ­ storyline to demonstrate this concept, about a mission that was largely unknown and, importantly, the spacecraft creating a first script for the video. In the to most audiences, but that had potential being asleep at the time and the imminent process of drawing the shapes of the for great public interest and appeal. wake-up in January — resonated with the Rosetta and Philae probes to represent fairy-tale narrative of Sleeping Beauty. It a simplified, but distinctly recognisable The activities included press briefings, was decided that the fourth video in the ­version of each spacecraft, the two char- the launch of new social-media chan- set should be a feel-good, family-friendly acters took shape, and anthropomorphic nels dedicated to Rosetta, and a series describingRosetta’s journey and ­features — such as arms, a mouth and of short ­videos to be distributed on the highlights so far, and giving a taste of the eyes — were added.

12 CAPjournal, No. 19, March 2016 CAPjournal, No. 19, March 2016

Figure 2. Early sketches showing the development of the Rosetta and Philae cartoon characters. Credit: Carlo Palazzari Figure 1. The first cartoon concept proposed in late 2013. Credit: Design & Data

The first concept illustrations developed very enthusiastic messages from many Rosetta, are we there yet? competition by D&D were promising and the ESA members of the public who appreciated conveying the feeling of being on a long team bought into the vision, agreeing to the clear content and fresh style delivered journey and the excitement of reaching use a cartoon video to promote Rosetta’s by the animation. one’s destination (O’Flaherty et al., 2016). wake-up competition alongside the three Following this a second full episode was other clips produced by D&D. released. Longer and more involved, this Building on the saga episode covered the events that followed the successful wake-up, including taking Cartoons and personification of The positive response to the introduction first images of the comet, planning ren- spacecraft of the characters led to additional cartoon dezvous manoeuvres, dreaming of future episodes and a continuation of the narra- scientific investigations, and, finally, the The cartoon, presenting Rosetta and Philae tive as mission events unfolded and the arrival. In both videos, the personalities as two brave, cheerful explorers on a fun overall Rosetta communication campaign of the spacecraft characters were further and pioneering journey across the Solar developed during 2014. developed, with Rosetta pictured as a System, was released on 20 December calm, reliable pilot and Philae as a curious 2013. In a little over two minutes, it The collaboration between ESA and D&D passenger, impatient to arrive at the comet. described the mission’s launch, the plan- continued. For each episode, the ESA etary and flybys, and the long team started by writing the script and out- The third full episode was released just cruise up to the point when the spacecraft, lining a rough storyboard, after which the a week before rendezvous on 6 August far from the energy of the , fell asleep. D&D team created a draft animation (with 2014. At that time, the ESA team had also In true fairy-tale style, the video ended a placeholder narration) on which the ESA been investigating another of the mission with Rosetta’s anticipated wake-up and an team commented and suggested edits. themes: the role of comets in the history of enticing “To be continued...” message. This lengthy review process was necessary science3. The team had considered includ- to ensure that the content of the cartoons ing some highlights from this fascinating The video, with a narration originally only in was not only visually and audibly engag- story in the arrival episode, but realised English, was published on ESA’s websites ing, but also factually correct in terms of that this subject deserved its own episode and YouTube channel, and promoted with accurately representing the course of — this became Fabulous Fables and Tales ESA’s social media channels, as well as via events, as well as the scientific and engi- of Tails. the Rosetta mission and Facebook neering aspects of the mission. Based accounts (Baldwin et al., 2016). It proved on the feedback provided the D&D team It was imagined as a story that the Rosetta quite successful, registering over 49 000 would then produce the fully animated and Philae characters may have read on views on YouTube in the six weeks follow- version of the episode, recording the nar- their journey, narrated by a grandfather fig- ing its release. ration with a voice actor and including a ure represented by ESA’s spacecraft music track. After final iterations to check which, in 1986, was the first spacecraft to Although there are precedents from other that every detail was correct, the ESA team make close-up observations of a comet. In outreach campaigns for personified space would publish the episode and promote it this four-minute-long episode, Giotto and a probes, landers, and even fundamental on ESA’s online channels. handful of probes from other space agen- particles, this was the first time that such an cies were also anthropomorphised, as approach had been taken for ESA’s main Ahead of Rosetta arriving at the comet in Giotto recounted stories about their vari- tier of communication2. Nevertheless, after the summer of 2014 the cartoons were ous cometary missions. The episode also the release of this first cartoon, we received used to create a trailer to promote the featured human characters from the history

How a Cartoon Series Helped the Public Care about Rosetta and Philae 13 How a Cartoon Series Helped the Public Care about Rosetta and Philae

Beyond that, Philae had landed in an unex- pectedly dark location where there was insufficient to charge the probe’s secondary batteries. After almost three days of successful scientific operations, Philae exhausted its non-rechargeable pri- mary battery, fell into hibernation, and lost contact with Rosetta. Addressing these non-nominal outcomes and the premature demise of Philae in terms of its anthropo- morphic incarnation became the key chal- lenge involved in the production of the fifth cartoon episode, ahead of its release in early 2015. We could not just say that Philae had “died”.

In fact, the anthropomorphic approach helped us by making it possible to present Philae’s risky and difficult tasks, as well as the unexpected chain of events, in terms of common feelings: fear, surprise, com- Figure 3. Selected scenes and characters from the cartoon. First row: Rosetta and Philae during launch; ­people mitment, and even humour. The issue of on Earth shouting “Wake Up, Rosetta!”; Rosetta and Philae finding directions in space; Rosetta catching comet the lander going into hibernation was com- . Second row: Rosetta taking a photo; Grandfather Giotto taking a photo; Philae and his sandwich; Rosetta municated by explicitly drawing attention to and Philae ready for comet landing. Third row: Philae studying the comet surface; Rosetta adjusting her antenna after wake-up (Philae still sleeping); Philae sleeping on the comet, dreaming of Rosetta, Giotto and previous Philae’s battery level dropping on an indi- comet chasers from other space agencies; Philae wearing his . Fourth row: Rosetta falling asleep; cator familiar from mobile phones (a visual baby pictures of Rosetta and Philae; mission controllers at ESA celebrating after Rosetta’s wake-up. Credit: ESA metaphor that had also been used in the very first episode to describe Rosetta’s of science, including ancient Chinese and nicate the various operational and scientific hibernation) and stating that he had fallen Greek scientists, as well as astronomers aspects involved in the landing in a charm- asleep on the comet’s surface, rather than from more recent times, such as Tycho ing yet accurate way, a long-­standing having died. This was reinforced by show- Brahe and Edmond Halley. ­concern with this approach came fully into ing him dreaming about the plaudits he focus during and after the production of might expect from the other comet mis- this episode. The real probe Philae was sions as previously anthropomorphised Communicating risk and managing about to be sent on a risky, one-way jour- in the Fabulous Fables and Tales of Tails expectations ney that would ultimately end in it dying ­episode, and also of possibly waking up on the surface of the comet. But having again later in the mission. The fourth major episode in the series turned both Rosetta and Philae into lovable was released one week before the ­ anthropomorphic characters, how could This approach appeared to go down well historic comet landing on 12 November we represent that risk in a truthful and yet with the cartoon audience, with a lot of 2014, describing Rosetta’s scientific activ- sensitive way? sympathy expressed for the anthropo- ities during the first months at the comet, morphic Philae, as well as hope that he the selection of Philae’s landing site, and This aspect became even more relevant in would awake from his slumber. When the preparation for sending Philae to the the wake of the unplanned of the Philae did indeed wake up again and make ­comet’s surface. The science ­experiments actual landing events. After Philae touched contact with Rosetta on 13 June 2015, a were represented through metaphors down at the originally planned landing cartoon still image prepared in advance (Arcand et al., 2014), for example, tast- site, it was unable to secure itself to the became the main visual element for com- ing water from the comet’s atmosphere surface and then rebounded, travelled municating this momentous news world- and collecting dust particles with a vac- above the surface for over two hours in a wide. This wake-up image was featured uum cleaner. Philae’s equipment was number of bounces, before finally com- prominently online, as well as by tradi- also ­portrayed in a similar way, including ing to rest over a kilometre from the ini- tional media. a ­helmet, headlamp, camera, compass, tial touchdown point. In a strange coin- pickaxe and snow boots. In addition, we cidence, a scene in the fourth episode The sixth and latest full episode in the series decided to add a sandwich to Philae’s showed Philae daydreaming of the land- to date was published in November 2015, backpack, to indicate that the lander would ing, including repeated bounces off the and mentioned Philae’s wake-up in June, need an independent source of energy to comet surface. This was included to help the difficulties in establishing communi- operate on the comet’s­ surface. manage expectation of the risks of landing cations between orbiter and lander, and in a general sense, but was by no means a reaching perihelion — the comet’s closest While these visual storytelling elements premonition of what was to come! point to the Sun along its — in August provided us with a helpful tool to commu- 2015. But the principal focus of the episode

14 CAPjournal, No. 19, March 2016 CAPjournal, No. 19, March 2016

Then, simply for balance, Philae was iden- The music used in the films, under the tified as a male character. However, to treat supervision of executive music producer the two characters equally and to avoid Rolf Maier-Bode, accompanies the jour- both a stereotyped nurturing connotation ney of Rosetta and Philae in the classical for Rosetta and possible emotional escala- storytelling model of the Hero’s Journey6. tion around the time of landing, we decided A ­predominantly relaxed, orchestral sound that Rosetta would not be a mother to a son was used, in contrast to a more dramatic Philae, but that the two probes would be style commonly identified with space described as siblings4. In the history epi- and . Various repeated sode, Giotto took the role of their grandfa- themes were used across the arc of the ther, while the more recent NASA missions, cartoons7, and only limited sound effects and , were regarded were employed, to avoid distracting from as cousins. the narration.

Regarding the animation style, the Although initially the narration was only in D&D team opted for a two-dimensional English, a clear demand for additional lan- Figure 4. An Italian newspaper’s report on Philae’s rather than three-dimensional anima- guages arose once the cartoons became wake-up in June 2015, including the tweet from tion. Aesthetically, the appeal of a simple, popular, especially for younger audiences @ESA_Rosetta featuring the cartoon. reduced representation of the spacecraft in non-native English-speaking countries. Source: La Stampa, Italiana Editrice S.p.A. was chosen instead of an overly detailed Subsequently, each episode has now been one. The images appear as watercolours released in five major European­languages, was on Rosetta’s activities during the first drawn on rugged paper, with a range of namely English, French, German, Italian, year at the comet, drawing attention back blue hues suggesting a dreamy environ- and Spanish, each with its own ­dedicated to the orbiter and its extensive set of scien- ment in outer space. At times, the texture narrator. tific experiments. Once again, the experi- of the paper was left visible in the video, ments and their results were represented­ some of the coloured areas appear not to Beyond the films themselves, the ESA team through a series of visual metaphors. be completely filled, and features like con- also exploited the crossover between the tour lines were deliberately left rough. This approach was chosen to convey the feeling Narrative, aesthetic and cross- of an almost handmade product, although media choices of course production time and budget con- straints also played a role. As the personalities of the Rosetta and Philae cartoon characters developed, a Within this graphical context the spacecraft number of other issues emerged. themselves were drawn in a very simplified form, rather than in any kind of more life- From the outset, we did not wish to asso- like representation, in part to avoid getting ciate any stereotypical gender character- anywhere close to the well-known Uncanny istics to the characters: both were intrepid Valley concept5, and also to appeal to a explorers undertaking a risky adventure broad range of viewers across different together. We nevertheless did choose target groups and cultures. One excep- to use he/she pronouns to help viewers, tion to this highly stylised approach was especially children, engage with and ­follow that in later episodes, as the mission and the single-voiced narration. its imagery gained wider recognition, we decided to include real images of Comet We decided that Rosetta would be a female 67P/C-G in selected scenes of the cartoon, character, most obviously because the interspersed with artistic representations. name is a common female name in many languages. But that immediately brought Similar considerations were taken into with it the strong message that Rosetta, a account in the choice of the voice actor bold explorer on a pioneering mission to for the narration. Among those auditioned study the origins of the , was we searched for a warm, fairy-tale feel so a representation of the many great women that the narration would resemble that of working in science and engineering. Even a grandparent telling a story to the ­family. before the cartoons first appeared we had The final choice of an American voice been encouraged by some leading women actor also ensured wider engagement with in the of and space sci- worldwide audiences, used to the voices of ence to present Rosetta as a positive female Hollywood actors. role model, and the anthropomorphised Figure 5. Examples of cartoon scenes used in the version made that eminently possible. tweets from @ESA_Rosetta. Credit: ESA

How a Cartoon Series Helped the Public Care about Rosetta and Philae 15 How a Cartoon Series Helped the Public Care about Rosetta and Philae

anthropomorphic spacecraft depicted in the cartoon series and the characters of Rosetta and Philae that were taking shape in the interactions between the first-person @ESA_Rosetta and @Philae2014 Twitter accounts, which often engaged in friendly conversations about their journey and adventures together8. Particularly in the weeks leading up to landing, tweets were often accompanied by images from the cartoon series in order to further rein- force the connection between the fictional spacecraft characters and the mission’s human followers (Baldwin et al., 2016).

Current status of the cartoon series

To date, six episodes have been released, plus a brief trailer for the Rosetta, are we there yet? competition. In addition, a com- pilation of scenes drawn from various ­episodes (but also including some brief Figure 6. Examples of Twitter messages about the Figure 7. An example of Rosetta-themed Christmas new elements) was shown on screens anthropomorphic cartoon characters. Source: Twitter decorations in December 2014. Source: Twitter throughout Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam without narration for several months at the two spacecraft and cared for their wellbe- following the live tweets from the two mis- end of 2015. ing. This was mainly evident in the social sion control rooms in (ESA) media sphere, especially on Twitter and and Cologne (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- To date, the total viewing numbers for all Facebook, where many users have com- und Raumfahrt, DLR) shared intense the videos combined is more than 1.8 mil- mented on the successes achieved and and quite probably genuine emotions of lion9; for the full six episodes, the average challenges faced by the spacecraft in per- ­tension, sadness, but also joy and pride ­viewership thus far is about 280 000, and sonal terms, often expressed using very at Philae’s achievements (Baldwin et al., the most-watched episode — featuring the human emotions. Many adopted the car- 2016). There was also a very positive preparations for landing on the comet — toon characters as their own avatars and ­emotional reaction when the lander made had reached over 900 000 views by the many thousands have shared them with contact with the orbiter again in June and end of 2015. their own contacts. July 2015.

At the time of writing, we intend to con- It is very unlikely that many people (apart Beyond ESA’s own communications out- tinue the cartoon series throughout the perhaps from the very youngest ­children) put, the personified cartoon characters mission’s operational lifetime. A number of actually thought that Rosetta and Philae and first-person tweets were also very episodes are envisaged in 2016 empha- were anything other than unintelligent widely used in stories about the mission sising the main scientific discoveries of robots mostly controlled from Earth. by news outlets worldwide, and the overall the mission, and leading up to the final However, the willingness to suspend dis- anthropomorphic approach we have taken planned controlled impact of Rosetta on belief and engage with anthropomor- to Rosetta and Philae has been discussed Comet ­67P/C-G at the end of September phised machines, animals, and completely and analysed in articles, blogs, podcasts, 2016. We then plan to complete the series ­fictional characters is a very common and mainstream media10. with a final long compilation, integrating all human characteristic exploited in a wide episodes with small edits to ensure a good range of storytelling arenas, and it is clear Outside of the 2D confines of the online flow, covering the entire history of Rosetta that we tapped into this with the combined films, the cartoon characters lent them- and Philae’s mission. cartoon and first-person approach. People selves to a variety of physical spin-off identify with Rosetta and Philae because products. Stickers featuring scenes from they are, in some sense, our representa- the cartoon episodes were produced and Analysis tives in the very human desire to explore distributed during public events, and a cut- the Universe. out-and-make 3D paper model11 of the two All the elements described above resulted main characters was made available online in the cartoon series making a significant The empathy perhaps peaked on the for the Rosetta, are we there yet? competi- contribution to personalising the mission night of 14 November 2014, in the final tion in 2014. The characters were also fea- and connecting with audiences, with the few hours before Philae’s primary battery tured on a series of products for purchase, result that many members of the public ran out, and as the two spacecraft con- including T-shirts, sweatshirts, and a soft made it clear that they empathised with the versed back and forth via Twitter. People toy: these have all proven very popular12.

16 CAPjournal, No. 19, March 2016 CAPjournal, No. 19, March 2016

Selected internet comments on the car- toons and the anthropomorphic rep- resentation of Rosetta and Philae posted on ESA’s public channels:

Awesome cartoon. We love it. We need more [of] this so space-related science gets attention from our kids

I saw all the videos about Rosetta and Philae, and they are really amazing, full of humility and educational content, and the animation is simply inspiring

Cheers! I totally loved those cartoons — made me fall in love with the mission and its adorable protagonists!

Do you know when the next cartoon is scheduled for release? I have a class of 14 year olds who want to see Philae’s adven- tures on the surface

Figure 8. The planetarium team at the Techmania Science Center in Plzenˇ, Czech Republic, wearing Rosetta and Philae cartoon T-shirts in front of the spacecraft scale model. Source: Facebook

Members of the public also created their film (McCaughrean, 2016). All of these out- prize at the EuroPAWS Science TV & New own versions of the cartoon representa- puts were accompanied by an extensive Media Festival, held in Lisbon in November tions of Rosetta, Philae, and the comet — social media presence. It is clear that no 2015. The cartoons were also shortlisted in ranging from baked goods to masquer- single approach can engage all possible the European Excellence Awards, honour- ade costumes and nail art — sharing many audiences and we have clearly seen that ing outstanding achievements in the field photos of their creations on social media many people appreciate receiving informa- of public relations and communication in channels. In December 2014, shortly after tion in a variety of forms: many amateur Europe, and for the Deutscher Preis für the landing, we were surprised by the num- and expert space enthusiasts were just as Onlinekommunikation in Germany. ber of Christmas decorations inspired by taken with the cartoons as they were with the mission themes that were spontane- technical details. These qualitative observations suggest ously posted on Facebook and Twitter. that the medium of visual storytelling can In the same vein and as an added and be used to develop a clear and engaging Based on comments received on ESA’s perhaps unexpected bonus, the anthro- narrative to communicate complex techni- websites and social media platforms, the pomorphised Rosetta and Philae have cal and scientific topics, and that a careful public response to the anthropomorphised also been very well received within the sci- use of anthropomorphic characters in the spacecraft has been very positive overall. entific community. Many scientists and dissemination of space science missions As a simple quantitative metric, the aver- engineers involved with the mission have has the potential to be widely appreciated age like-to-dislike ratio of the cartoon epi- reported that they use the cartoon mate- by a variety of audiences. With Rosetta and sodes on YouTube is a hundred to one. rial extensively when giving public talks, Philae, this has worked extremely well, and especially in schools. Some Rosetta sci- it seems likely that their anthropomorphic Overall, there was very little criticism of the entists have been sighted wearing cartoon-­ avatars will live on in the public sphere long approach, but that which did arise was themed clothing at conferences, and after the mission itself is over. mostly limited to tech-savvy space enthu- plenty of scientists and engineers world- siasts who deemed cartoons to be childish wide, covering many different disciplines, and did not appreciate the level of simpli- commented positively on the cartoons Acknowledgements fication adopted in the narrative. However, and adopted Rosetta and Philae avatars this ignores the fact that cartoons were just for their social media presence. This work describes one aspect of the com- one of several facets of the broad Rosetta munication campaign devised by the Euro- and Philae communication campaign run Finally, in further external validation, pean Space Agency (ESA) and its partner by ESA and its partner institutions. This the cartoon series has featured a few institutions to promote the Rosetta mission, campaign included a huge variety of prod- times among the many prizes that the which was made possible by the work and ucts to appeal to and engage many differ- ­mission and its communication campaign collaboration of a great number of people ent audiences, including images and data have been awarded over the past year. at ESA’s various establishments and in ex­- from the various instruments; news and These include the Fast Forward Science ternal partner agencies and institutions. In updates about the technical and scientific Award from Wissenschaft im Dialog particular, to thank Ruth McAvinia aspects of the mission; in-depth articles; and the Stifterverband für die Deutsche for collaborating on the of the car- video material; interviews with mission Wissenschaft in Germany in December toon and Karin Ranero Celius for running experts and even a short science fiction 2014, and the New Media (non-interactive) the @Philae2014 Twitter account for DLR.

How a Cartoon Series Helped the Public Care about Rosetta and Philae 17 How a Cartoon Series Helped the Public Care about Rosetta and Philae

Notes major change or transformation. Joseph McCaughrean, M. et al. 2016, Communicating Campbell first described it in his 1949 book Astronomy with the Public, 19 1 Links to all episodes of ESA’s Once upon a The Hero with a Thousand Faces. O’Flaherty, K. et al. 2016, Communicating time... cartoon series can be found here: 7 An example of a repeated theme used in the Astronomy with the Public, 19 http://sci.esa.int/rosetta/53593-outreach- animation’s score is the simple fifth interval Vertesi, J. 2010, Communicating Astronomy resources/#once-upon-a-time in the melody at the beginning of the first with the Public, 10 2 There are already precedents for a personi- episode, resembling a fanfare. This was fied approach to public communication of chosen to match the first scene of the epi- space science. Several spacecraft, most sode, showing a rocket launching into the Biographies notably NASA’s and Curiosity sky — an iconic image for space explora- landers on , have first-person Twitter tion. The overall motif was chosen to remain accounts (Vertesi, 2010) and the ESA wary and emotional, to convey the sense Claudia Mignone has a degree in astron- omy, a PhD in cosmology and a passion for ­science communication team had already of uncertainty in the mission’s future at the telling stories about space, science and the decided that Rosetta would also adopt a time of launch; for this reason the fifth inter- Universe. She has been working as a science first-person voice before making the val was played in a delicate way. To fit with writer for the European Space Agency since ­cartoons. Other examples include an illus- the fairy-tale style of the drawings and nar- 2010. ­Claudia is co-manager of the Rosetta trated booklet (in Japanese) written in 2010 ration, the bold, adventurous fifth interval blog and Rosetta Mission Facebook pages, which told the story of JAXA’s asteroid from the first scene was eventually matched and provides support for @ESA_Rosetta. to an overall charming, rather gentle ­melody. ­sample-return mission , featuring Emily Baldwin has a PhD in anthropomorphic spacecraft and planets 8 The ESA science communication team and is space science editor for the ­European (http://www.isas.jaxa.jp/j/enterp/missions/ manages the @ESA_Rosetta Twitter Space Agency’s web portal, www.esa.int. She is hayabusa/fun/adv/index.shtml); the Istituto account, while the @Philae2014 account is the primary voice of the @ESA_Rosetta Twitter and rosettamission Instagram accounts, and Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare animated managed by the DLR. Many of the conver- video (in Italian) called Nino il Neutrino, co-manager of the Rosetta blog and Rosetta sations between the two accounts were Mission Facebook pages. ­produced in 2008, featuring anthropomor- co-scripted in advance. phic particles flying through space and 9 The view counts are cumulative across Karen O’Flaherty is a scientist, editor and explaining fundamental physics concepts occasional writer. She is chief editor for ESA’s website and YouTube channel (https://youtu.be/mSQ3w3IcVSM); and in the European Space Agency’s Science & (­including all five languages). The videos 2003, ESA’s development of the anthropo- ­Technology and Robotic have been republished by many independ- websites, providing news and information morphic Paxi character, an alien exploring ent online channels and translated into about the scientific and research activities of outer space, for its ESA Kids education other languages, but these viewing num- the Directorate of Science. website (http://www.esa.int/esaKIDSen/). bers are not included here. 3 A history of comets is available here: Anne-Mareike Homfeld is the science com- 10 Examples of news outlets using the cartoon munication officer at the European Space Agen- http://sci.esa.int/rosetta/54198-harbingers- characters in their reporting include cy’s European Space Research and Technology of-doom-windy-exhalations-or-icy-­ ­Washington Post articles by Rachel Feltman Centre in the Netherlands. Her responsibilities wanderers/ on Rosetta and Philae communications include organising press conferences, media 4 Interestingly, members of the public who relations and web publishing. She is also the (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/ manager of the @esascience twitter account. mention the characters of Rosetta and speaking-of-science/wp/2014/11/15/why- Philae on the ESA social media channels we-all-fell-in-love-with-rosettas-philae- Markus Bauer is Head of the European have referred to them in different ways: from lander/); a Flow South Africa blog post by Space Astronomy Centre Communications siblings to mother and child, and even, in Stuart Buchanan on the social media strat- Office and responsible for space science and robotic exploration for the European Space some cases, as lovers. egy used for Rosetta (http://www.flowsa. ­Agency’s (ESA) corporate communications. 5 The Uncanny Valley is a concept that has com/blog/entry/cometlanding-a-social- He holds a degree in communication from the been researched in the field of aesthetics media-strategy-thats-out-of-this-world/) ­Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität in Munich and and was first identified by Japanese and The Cosmic Shed podcast on the worked as a TV journalist before joining ESA. ­roboticist Masahiro Mori as Bukimi no Rosetta communication campaign (http:// Mark McCaughrean is the Senior Science Tani Gensho- (不気味の谷現象 ) in 1970. The thecosmicshed.podbean.com/e/bonus- Advisor in the European Space Agency’s (ESA) term itself first appeared in the 1978 book episode-ambition/). Directorate of Science, including responsibility Robots: Fact, Fiction, and Prediction, by art 11 The Rosetta and Philae paper model is for communicating results from ESA’s space critic and curator Jasia Reichardt. The idea available here: http://esamultimedia.esa.int/ science missions to the scientific community is that consumers of animated movies and docs/rosetta/RosettaModel.pdf and wider audiences. He holds a PhD in - games can develop an antipathy towards physics from the University of Edinburgh. 12 The Rosetta online shop managed by D&D avatars that aim (but ultimately fail) to get is here: http://www.rosettashop.eu/ Sebastian Marcu is the Chief Executive as close as possible to human-like charac- Officer of Design & Data GmbH, a ­specialised teristics. Instead, there seems to be a pref- cross-media agency that provides digital visual erence towards a certain degree of abstrac- communications solutions for the space ­sector tion in slightly unrealistic anthropomorphic References and science. He has over 15 years of experience­ figures. as a content marketing and PR strategy expert. 6 The Hero’s Journey (or monomyth) is a Arcand, K. et al. 2014, Communicating Carlo Palazzari is a graphics designer at ­universal pattern that has been used by ­Astronomy with the Public, 15 Design & Data GmbH who specialises in ani- ­storytellers around the world for millennia. Bauer, M. et al. 2016, Communicating mations, screen design and illustrations. He created the look and feel of the Rosetta and It involves a heroic character who goes out ­Astronomy with the Public, 19 Philae cartoon characters, as well as the over- on an adventure, faces and overcomes Baldwin, E. et al. 2016, Communicating all screen design. challenges and crises, and returns after a Astronomy with the Public, 19

18 CAPjournal, No. 19, March 2016