ESA and public relations - not a happy coule

When Huygens data were about to come into ESOC at Darmstadt the only
real-time link for the general public was a webcast from the control room
via NASA-TV(!). ESA-TV only goes out via satellite and sometimes via a
channel called EuroNews (which very few households have).

There was no comment or explanation as to what was happening in the control
room. The gentleman who had been interviewing people earlier in te day was
sitting at a console chit-chatting with a female colleague leaning over his
shoulder. The minutes dragged by, and if you really made an effort you could
hear him say "not yet, not yet". Time passed 1615 UT (nominal time for
getting playback data) but only by whipping around several ESA web pages I
knew that signals were expected at about 1621 UT. Finally, at about 1620
everybody cheered and it seemed that data was coming in.

The gentleman I mentioned above then left his console and there was general
pandemonium. However, the sound was still on and I could hear other console
operators saying things to each other. I almost immediately heard the words
"there is something wrong". Maybe 30 seconds later one could make out
something about "channel A not working but data coming in on channel B".
After that the view switched to a conference room where a lot of people were
waiting for the big managers to appear and make pompous statements.

They did come, after a while, and made quite predictable statements. ESA's
DG Dordain is a good speaker and sometimes fun to listen to. The science
director David Southwood is a great communicator, when he speaks freely. We
sometimes call him "Europe's only stand-up scientist". But when making
prepared statements, he and Dordain are as dull as every other big-wig.

So, ESA made three mistakes:

* Not using the most up-to-date channel to reach media and the public, i.e.
its own web broadcast system.
* Letting the public watch a real-time event unfold without a knowledgeable
guide. The uncommented broadcast from the control room was a disaster.
* Instead of giving concrete details about what just had happened room was
given to pompous gala speeches by top managers instead of some technically
knowledgable giving information as to what had just occurred.

Every big ESA announcement of big news follows this same pattern. Instead of
getting the public excited about space it makes people bored and confused.

I was in a news studio of Radio Sweden trying to help listeners understand
what was going on. I used the NASA-TV webcast and Spaceflightnow to try to
follow events. I barely managed to give listeners their money's worth.

This approach of ESA's must change in order to keep the support of the
public. The drama and excitement of space events are grossly underutilized.

Sven Grahn


www.svengrahn.pp.se