Ambition: a Risky Adventure in Science Communication Reviews
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Ambition: A Risky Adventure in Science Communication Reviews Mark McCaughrean Keywords European Space Agency (ESA) Science fiction, [email protected] science communication This article explores how the European Space Agency made a short science fiction film about theRosetta mission to engage audiences in the core scientific and philosophical questions of the mission, and to manage expectations regarding the risky landing of Philae on the surface of Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko. Beginnings: From 7 Minutes of Rosetta was going to be big. It was going to Fast forward to mid-2013, when the plan- Terror to the Rosetta story break new ground as the first-ever mission ning for Rosetta’s big year began in earnest. to rendezvous with, escort, and land on a We knew we had a series of milestones in Early in the morning on 6 August 2012, comet, and this was going to be an adven- 2014 that we could build the communica- I was at the European Space Agency’s ture that people could follow in almost real- tion campaign around. The wake-up from (ESA) European Space Operations Centre time. Scientifically, the mission promised hibernation on 20 January, rendezvous (ESOC) in Darmstadt, Germany, taking new insights into the origin of the Solar with 67P/C-G on 6 August, and then the part in a media event covering the land- System and perhaps even life on Earth. It landing of Philae in mid-November. There ing of NASA’s Curiosity rover on Mars. As had the potential to become a major high- were many things that needed doing, as we watched the live feed from California, light in space exploration. described elsewhere in this special edi- the tension was high. We all knew that the tion of CAPjournal, but we had decided novel “skycrane” approach was risky and Rosetta definitely deserved the 7 Minutes that a core part of the campaign was to be that the whole mission depended on it. of Terror treatment, but it wasn’t that sim- a film, a few minutes of top-drawer video ple. The event most likely to engage the that would capture attention across a wide One of the reasons that everyone at ESOC, widest public was going to be the land- audience, something we tentatively called and around the world, was on the edge ing of Philae, but in contrast to Curiosity’s The Rosetta Story. of their seats was because of a film made high-speed clattering descent through by NASA called 7 Minutes of Terror, which the atmosphere towards Mars, Philae was We sold this idea internally and garnered illustrated Curiosity’s journey down through going to take hours to descend sedately the necessary funding to go ahead, but the Martian atmosphere and onto the sur- to the comet’s surface and would do so in soon afterwards we began to wonder face1. The film showed mission engineers complete silence. We couldn’t make a film whether a straightforward film about the talking about each key step, interspersed called 7 Hours of Nervous Tension. mission would be worthwhile. After all, we with high-end computer graphics, sound would also be making a series of classical and music, showing in dramatic fashion However, we had also noted that NASA’s technical animations to illustrate the mis- how the descent was supposed to unfold. film talked exclusively about the “what”, sion, while others would be making doc- namely the technical difficulties and check- umentaries much better than we could. 7 Minutes of Terror painted the mission as points in getting Curiosity onto Mars. It What could this film bring on top of that? bold, risky, and perhaps even a little crazy, didn’t talk about the “why”. Why was under- but it certainly grabbed people’s attention. taking such a risky endeavour worthwhile? It encouraged viewers to watch the mis- What was the scientific rationale behind Enter science fiction: The birth of sion unfold and see if everything would such a mission? Beyond the complex tech- Ambition work and made them feel involved in the nology and the risks associated with it, why adventure. The film was a huge success, should people care about the mission? After a great deal of thought about the as was the Curiosity landing. role this new film would play, the light went So, right from the outset, we knew that any- on. Rather than a literal telling of Rosetta’s We knew then that the ante had been thing we did had to be different. As well story, perhaps we could talk about the upped, and that we would have to try as illustrating the mission, it had to talk scientific, technical, and philosophical and reach the same level of engagement about what we were hoping to achieve with aspects of the mission within a fictional with our communication work at ESA. The Rosetta, what it would mean scientifically framework. By creating an interesting story, most immediate challenge was going to be and perhaps even philosophically to peo- we might hope to draw in new audiences Rosetta, which was due to arrive at Comet ple and what it could teach us about our- otherwise reluctant to engage with a real 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko (Comet selves. We wanted people to care about space mission. To do this justice, we knew 67P/C-G) exactly two years later, and then Rosetta in a deeper way. we couldn’t do it ourselves. We needed to to attempt to put its lander, Philae, onto the work with talented people in the film indus- surface of the comet only months after that. try who could develop a compelling short CAPjournal, No. 19, March 2016 21 Ambition: A Risky Adventure in Science Communication Figure 1. A selection of scenes from the short science fiction film Ambition. Credit: Platige Image narrative inspired by Rosetta, and then pro- organiser of the International Astronomical With the team on board we started to dis- duce an outstanding audiovisual experi- Union CAP conference in Poland in 2013. cuss possible storylines. One was a heist ence around it. They would also need to movie, in which someone broke into a understand our wishes and constraints, Jan’s involvement as film and campaign giant museum and stole the centrepiece, both scientifically and in terms of commu- producer, managing the overall Platige a kilometre-wide comet, an icy treasure nication by an international space agency. effort from within its creative department chest. We then focused on the idea of turn- (PLTG R130, now called Fish Ladder), was ing science fiction into science fact, to show We asked two companies for bids, and critical to us. Beyond producing an amaz- how Rosetta was going to do something while both had excellent storytelling skills ing film, we needed to work with people hitherto thought of as impossible, mad, and technical credentials, ultimately we who could grasp the science and technol- crazy. Refining things, we came around to decided to go with Platige Image, based ogy, and who could see the bigger picture telling a story set in the deep future, look- in Warsaw, Poland2. of what we were aiming to achieve. They ing back at Rosetta as a pivotal moment in also needed to be sensitive to the potential space exploration and the understanding Platige make award-winning short films pitfalls surrounding a civilian space agency of our own origins. and commercials, including the stun- getting into the science fiction game. We ning and later BAFTA-winning trailers for were very lucky to be assigned Platige’s Platige came up with the perfect name for the BBC’s coverage of the 2014 Winter star director Tomek Bagínski, who was the film: Ambition. This encapsulates the Olympics in Sochi, Russia3. They also have nominated for an Oscar in 2002 for his extraordinary goals of the entire Rosetta scientists involved in the team both at the short film The Cathedral4. Tomek had also mission in a single positive word, but also helm of the company and in Jan Pomierny, directed the BBC Sochi Olympics trailer implicitly refers to the risks associated with our main interface throughout. Jan is an and that dark, dramatic piece with its bril- rendezvousing with a comet for the first astronomer and science communicator liant visuals, voiceover, and driving music time and then being so bold as to deploy through the New Space Foundation, which seemed a perfect fit for us as a starting a lander to its surface5. he co-founded, who has also worked with reference. the Universe Awareness project and as an 22 CAPjournal, No. 19, March 2016 CAPjournal, No. 19, March 2016 Davis at the British Film Institute (BFI) in London was organising a science fiction film festival calledDays of Fear and Wonder for later in the year, and had been talking to various people about how to mix science fiction and real science. Via UK-based sci- ence communicators, Marek Kukula and Anita Heward, he had heard about Rosetta and asked if we could explore working together, perhaps by livestreaming the Philae landing from ESOC to the BFI. When we requested that he instead help us to premiere a science fiction film during his festival, Rhidian quickly overcame his initial surprise and became an enthusias- tic supporter of the concept. He arranged meetings with BFI senior management and by the summer, helped by the fact that Rosetta was already making big news, they Figure 2. Photographs taken during the filming of Ambition on location in Iceland. Credit: Mark McCaughrean had agreed to host the premiere at their prominent theatre in London.