EVE - European Venus Explorer
An in-situ mission proposal to Venus within the ESA Cosmic Vision 2015-2025 programme
Communication and
Public Outreach Activities
Special feature: Movie - "Around Venus by Balloon"
Similar in size and mass to Earth, Venus could be viewed as a twin. Yet, its evolutionary path has been drastically different and demonstrates a unique set of exotic phenomena such as a carbon dioxide atmosphere, sulphuric acid clouds, extremely high surface temperatures, hurricane winds circling the planet, and giant vortices.
How did Venus, become such a radically different planet?
Is this the future of our planet if the trend of increasing atmospheric greenhouse gases continues?
How stable is our own climate system? What was Venus climate in the past? How did the Earth manage to exist between cold Mars and hot Venus scenarios?
Many of the questions that we would like to solve for Venus apply to Earth as well, and the EVE mission presents a unique opportunity to discuss issues relating to climate change, and raise the public profile of ESA and its broad research programs including the earth.
We believe that these and other topics provide an excellent basis to communicate the importance of improving our understanding of Venus, as well as our home planet. This is especially true at a point in history, when public interests regarding questions related to climate changes are very strong.
The European Venus Explorer mission will attract much public interest; therefore, thoughtful coordination and planning of communications and public outreach activities are of key importance. The EVE Mission will provide material for public outreach and other public communications through a variety of conduits. The EVE team already includes dedicated media and communications experts, who will coordinate such activities. Special outreach training courses for the EVE science team members will help to maximize the impact and broad dissemination of the EVE public communication and education efforts.
The details of an outreach programme will be developed in consultation with the EVE science team and with ESA. Potential elements include:
A. Website – a dedicated mission website regularly updated for the public to follow mission progress/discoveries, with animations and interactive activities, and links to the wealth of resources developed across Europe.
B. Teacher resources for formal education – the science team will work with European Space Education Resource Offices (ESEROs) in individual nations in order to create resources tailor-made for the different languages and curriculum needs of each nation. The ESEROs will also maintain contact lists of scientists in each country who will be able to talk about the EVE mission in schools and at events.
C. Image and video Library – a selection of the most striking images produced by the mission, along with explanatory captions for press and writers to use, and a series of film clips explaining aspects of the mission.
D. Travelling EVE exhibition – model EVE balloons could be deployed at public fairs and events, as well as images, videotapes, posters, maps, mission planning charts, slide sets, factsheets from the mission, to be loaned to libraries, museums and public groups.
E. Publicity Materials such as posters, brochures and ESA Special Publications. In the digital age, resources must include not only images, posters, and lesson plans, but also web resources and video material. Europe’s Venus science community are already experienced in this field; for example, a series of ten short educational films is being made for the VIRTIS instrument on Venus Express, each using an aspect of Venus science to explain a different physical phenomenon. The EVE team has already started the investigating educational film opportunities relating to this mission – an example pilot film and a description can be found and downloaded under "Around Venus by Balloon".
F. Engaging the youth – art, mythology and science fiction provide opportunities to engage a broader audience through interdisciplinary connections - see for example the “postcards from Venus” graphics competition organised for Venus Express. Further possibilities include music or science fiction writing competitions.
G. Balloon Laboratory projects – co-ordinated in different ESA countries, for undergraduate-level science and engineering students, using a variety of balloons capable of carrying small instruments.
ESA will have overall responsibility for planning and implementation of the Communications and Public Outreach activities related to the EVE mission. The active participation of key EVE implementation team members is essential for the success of the Communications and Public Outreach activities. For this purpose, the Education and Outreach Team will work with the EVE Project to initiate and identify opportunities for maximizing public awareness and educational impact. Materials suitable for release to the public will be provided by the Science Working Team during the development, operational and post-operational phases of the mission.
The EVE team includes experienced, international specialists in Education and Public Outreach, who will co-ordinate these activities for the mission, taking advantage of pre-existing infrastructures provided by ESA education office, ESEROs and Europlanet. In addition, we expect to coordinate with the invited United States Science team members, which includes a Space Science expert in NASA education and public outreach programming.
Planetary exploration is exciting.
Therefore, planetary
exploration missions offer an invaluable opportunity to engage with the public.
In the 21st century, public engagement needs to use many media, including the
internet and film.
We present here a short educational film related to the European Venus Explorer
mission proposal.
If the proposal were selected, we would make several such films, each exploring
different science topics: for example greenhouse
warming, satellite orbits, cloud processes - as well as films about scientists
and
engineers at work, the international nature of ESA projects, and other such more
general topics.
This particular film is aimed at 14-18 year old science students, but could be
used more in a wider range of settings.
If used in a formal education (classroom) setting, teachers should introduce the
following concepts:
- Basic facts
about the planets - in particular Earth, Venus, Mars
- Basic facts on gravity and how to travel to
planets
- Greenhouse warming (natural greenhouse effect and the contribution from
industrial gases)
Practical activities can also be linked in with a lesson on Venus and balloons.
As an example, the film shows footage from a balloon
release experiment performed at a school in Portugal. This proved very popular,
and provides a good
opportunity to talk
about the use of weather balloons. The balloon release experiment can also
be repeated at local
schools.
Length of film: 7.5 minutes
Format: MPEG
File size: 77.598 kB
Director: Maarten Roos
Produced by Maarten Roos and the Oxford Academy of Documentary Film
DVD Version - with this link you can download an image file of the movie to burn a DVD
(by using e.g. Disk Utility (Mac) or applications like Nero (Windows). The DVD features subtitles
in English and includes an additional short extra film.
File size: 459.360 kB
Explanatory notes for the use of the movies in classrooms:
Download: Around Venus by Balloon - work suggestions
Download: Around Venus by Balloon - integral text
Download: Weather Stations and Balloons - integral text