ESA and public relations - not a happy coule

[Sven Grahn]

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

[Scott Hedrick]

"Sven Grahn" > wrote in message
...
> Every big ESA announcement of big news follows this same pattern.

Which just happens to be similar to what the UN does.

Instead of
> getting the public excited about space it makes people bored and confused.

Which means that they won't pay attention and therefore are less likely to
either notice problems or, if noticed, think the problems are significant.
It's an intentional attempt to keep the public ignorant while pretending to
provide information in the Grand Old Soviet style.

If ESA were truly independent instead of required to keep each and every
member happy, you'd see better PR.

[yars_omalley@yahoo.com]

Sven Grahn wrote:
> 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

Couldn't agree more with you. I thought the web coverage was dismal.
Unattnded mikes occasionally banging against some object, an occasional
word inadvertently picked up, and a overwhelming feeling of where are
we going here that lasted throughout. I was left to watch Miles on CNN
and worse wait for the Science Channels' heavily advertised Adam
"mysterious universe" Hart Davis's canned coverage of an empty control
room. The press conference was agreeably lots of noise little
substance. Additionally ESA certinaly has something to crow about in
the accomplishment, but to hear the probe discussed as fully redundant,
"two probes in one" oh and by the way we lost one channel and we were
not prepared for, the hoped for, additional time on the lander so can
we borrow your radio telescope part, I did not get. Growing pains are
understandable, NASA was mentioned 2x. I still cannot determine if in
fact the fully redundant "two probes in one" did lose half the
potential imagery due to the loss of one channel because as of now the
website is still lost in space. NASA screws up and has big time, but
all in all the world for the most part can see the screw ups (less
"some" behind the scenes foul ups of epic porportions) European
nations involved in space exploration should learn from the US/NASA
model. When the Beagle went silent, it went SILENT, now Huygens is
drifting away as well Come on ESA get organized, move on and share
your information with a waiting world, its your biggest supporter

[Revision]

"Sven Grahn"
> I used the NASA-TV webcast and Spaceflightnow
> to try to follow events. I barely managed to give listeners
> their money's worth.

Watching NASA TV last night I noted that while the Huygens is an ESA
project, the reception of the telemetry had been subcontracted to JPL, if
I recall correctly.

---
BBC News
Professor Southwood said the human error that had caused the problem was
"an Esa responsibility".

"There is some aspect of humanity in every godlike occurrence. And there
was a blemish yesterday," said Professor Southwood. "That's the cosmos
reminding us we're just human."
---
Just this morning I now find that the Channel A problem was due to human
error. So it follows that this errant human was at JPL?

It is not unusual that the NASA channel would be your news source if JPL
was running that phase of the "show."

[Sven Grahn]

"Revision" <k@tdot-com> skrev i meddelandet
...
> It is not unusual that the NASA channel would be your news source if JPL
> was running that phase of the "show."
>
Yes, that is indeed so, but at other times when ESA runs media evnets all on
its own it does not use webcasting, only satellite distribution, which is
hard for the general public to pick up, bceause it is a satellite "feed"
that they provide. Only Euronews, which few have, broadcast some ESA TV
material.

Sven

[yars_omalley@yahoo.com]

Revision wrote:
> "Sven Grahn"
> > I used the NASA-TV webcast and Spaceflightnow
> > to try to follow events. I barely managed to give listeners
> > their money's worth.
>
> Watching NASA TV last night I noted that while the Huygens is an ESA
> project, the reception of the telemetry had been subcontracted to
JPL, if
> I recall correctly.
> If it is a subcontractor issue than the general contractor should
deal with it. Sorry to be trite about it but hey.....further I cannot
believe in anycase that ESA did not anticipate possible prolonged
battery life and subsequent need to plan for it and sign off on it .
> ---
> BBC News
> Professor Southwood said the human error that had caused the problem
was
> "an Esa responsibility".
>
> "There is some aspect of humanity in every godlike occurrence. And
there
> was a blemish yesterday," said Professor Southwood. "That's the
cosmos
> reminding us we're just human."
> ---
> Just this morning I now find that the Channel A problem was due to
human
> error. So it follows that this errant human was at JPL?
>
> It is not unusual that the NASA channel would be your news source if
JPL
> was running that phase of the "show."

[Henry Spencer]

In article >, Revision <k@tdot-com> wrote:
>Just this morning I now find that the Channel A problem was due to human
>error. So it follows that this errant human was at JPL?

No, Jacques Louet of ESA has publicly accepted full responsibility
(although the actual error was presumably committed by one of his staff).
He says JPL got confusing and incorrect instructions from ESA.

I'm trying to remember the last time when there was an embarrassing public
screwup at NASA and someone there stood up and told the world that he took
full responsibility for it... I'm trying, but the old memory cells just
aren't yielding up anything...
--
"Think outside the box -- the box isn't our friend." | Henry Spencer
-- George Herbert |

[Bjørn Ove Isaksen]

Sven Grahn wrote:

>
> Yes, that is indeed so, but at other times when ESA runs media evnets all
> on its own it does not use webcasting, only satellite distribution, which
> is hard for the general public to pick up, bceause it is a satellite
> "feed" that they provide. Only Euronews, which few have, broadcast some
> ESA TV material.

I wrote a mail to my local agency complaining. The rest of this text is in
Norwegian, for Sven. Just trying to get him to join us in getting the bar
up.

Jeg gav en alvorlig klage til Norsk Romsenter på både dekningen i går som
jeg også måtte følge på NASAtv. Dere i Sverige er nok en sterkere instans i
forhold til å påvirke ESA. Jeg klagde også på hvor lite data som er
offentlig tilgjengelig fra Mars Express osv. 6 måneder bruker de i USA før
de blir offentlig. PI har den tiden på å skrive for Science/Nature. Med
hensyn på likeverdigheten vi skal elske så høyt i Europa synes jeg det er
en skam at ikke dataene blir offentligjort via internet. Noe lignende av
NASA's PDS ser jeg ingenting av. Egentlig bra at NASA's bidrag i Huygens
var kameraet for de slipper ting fort. Normalt slipper de alt av "raw" med
en gang (eksempel MER og Cassini). Kan du hjelpe til å bruke den Svenske
avdeligngen av ESA til å pushe på forandring så hjelper det på. Samme
gjelder til alle dere som kan lese dette, som jeg antar er Normenn,
Dansker, Svensker, og Folk fra Grønnland/Færøyene (som burde være
Norsk! :-) ) osv..

Sincerely
Bjørn Ove

[Bjørn Ove Isaksen]

>...
> the accomplishment, but to hear the probe discussed as fully redundant,
> "two probes in one" oh and by the way we lost one channel and we were
> not prepared for, the hoped for, additional time on the lander so can
> we borrow your radio telescope part, I did not get. Growing pains are
>...
This part I would let them go with. Facts is that the extra channel was
meant for loss of signal during plasma phase or as a redunant channel. The
fact that PI's utilised this for dubble data return could in my perpective
only be considered as bonus. It's a loss of bonus, and not science as i see
it.

Sincerely
Bjørn Ove

[OM]

On Sun, 16 Jan 2005 03:47:21 +0100, Bjørn Ove Isaksen
> wrote:

>Jeg gav en alvorlig klage til Norsk Romsenter på både dekningen i går som
>jeg også måtte følge på NASAtv.

"Mi sister got bitten by a m00se 0nce. It was caught on camera and
shown live on NASAtv. No! Really!"

OM

--

"No ******* ever won a war by dying for | http://www.io.com/~o_m
his country. He won it by making the other | Sergeant-At-Arms
poor dumb ******* die for his country." | Human O-Ring Society

- General George S. Patton, Jr

[OM]

On Sat, 15 Jan 2005 22:39:48 GMT, (Henry Spencer)
wrote:

>No, Jacques Louet of ESA has publicly accepted full responsibility
>(although the actual error was presumably committed by one of his staff).
>He says JPL got confusing and incorrect instructions from ESA.

....Yup. Leave it to the Frogs to screw things up.

OM

--

"No ******* ever won a war by dying for | http://www.io.com/~o_m
his country. He won it by making the other | Sergeant-At-Arms
poor dumb ******* die for his country." | Human O-Ring Society

- General George S. Patton, Jr

[OM]

On Sat, 15 Jan 2005 14:48:06 GMT, "Sven Grahn" >
wrote:

>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, the Frogs were responsible for the PR side of Huygens. These
are people who think Jerry Lewis is still the funniest comic in
history. Can you *honestly* expect a people like that to have
performed such duties as they should be done?

OM

--

"No ******* ever won a war by dying for | http://www.io.com/~o_m
his country. He won it by making the other | Sergeant-At-Arms
poor dumb ******* die for his country." | Human O-Ring Society

- General George S. Patton, Jr

[Revision]

"Henry Spencer"

> He says JPL got confusing and incorrect instructions from ESA.

Had not heard that clarification. Yes well after my post I started
thinking that Jacques Louet *did* state unequivocally that the fault was
on ESA's side. The operation occurred during a fixed time window, so no
time for three weeks of troubleshooting as was done with Spirit Rover.
The techs could have easily had a good spacecraft and lost all the data,
which I don't want to think about.

Revision
> > It is not unusual that the NASA channel
> > would be your news source if JPL
> > was running that phase of the "show."

Sven Grahn
> Yes, that is indeed so, but at other times when ESA
> runs media events all on its own it does not use
> webcasting, only satellite distribution, which is
> hard for the general public to pick up, [because] it is a
> satellite "feed" that they provide. Only Euronews,
> which few have, broadcast some ESA TV
> material.

Thanks...I think I understand the situation now. DirecTV is a reliable
source of NASA TV but has a directional footprint that does not reach
Europe. NASA TV should consider a European satellite feed during key
events, and ESA also.

The local cable channel puts the public school cafeteria menus and NASA
TV on channel 99, but only switches to NASA if there is a manned op. And
NASA for its part does not, as you know, cover non-NASA launches, such as
the memorable FGB module launch (webcast by Energia), Soyuz, Ariane,
etc., which I would like to see changed but no one has asked for my
advice.

[lou@cadence.com]

Henry Spencer wrote:
> >
> I'm trying to remember the last time when there was an embarrassing
public
> screwup at NASA and someone there stood up and told the world that he
took
> full responsibility for it... I'm trying, but the old memory cells
just
> aren't yielding up anything...
> --
The last ones that come to mind are Al Bean, "Oops, I pointed the
camera at the sun" and John Young, "Oops, I tripped over the
siesmometer cable", and those are long, long ago....

Lou Scheffer

[Rusty Barton]

On Sat, 15 Jan 2005 21:06:23 -0600, OM
<om@our_blessed_lady_mary_of_the_holy_NASA_research _facility.org>
wrote:

>On Sun, 16 Jan 2005 03:47:21 +0100, Bjørn Ove Isaksen
> wrote:
>
>>Jeg gav en alvorlig klage til Norsk Romsenter på både dekningen i går som
>>jeg også måtte følge på NASAtv.
>
>"Mi sister got bitten by a m00se 0nce. It was caught on camera and
>shown live on NASAtv. No! Really!"
>
> OM

"The Norwegian-Huygens experiment will be broadcast live on NASAtv.
Tune in as King Oscar sardines from Norway freeze instantly when
placed on the surface of Titan!"

;-)

-Rusty

[Sven Grahn]

"> ...Sven, the Frogs were responsible for the PR side of Huygens. These
> are people who think Jerry Lewis is still the funniest comic in
> history. Can you *honestly* expect a people like that to have
> performed such duties as they should be done?
>
> OM
>

I wish it were that simple, i.e. blaming verything bad in Europe on the
French. It is deeper. It has to to with the academic culture in Europe - the
Ivory Tower syndrome....

Sven

[Pat Flannery]

wrote:

>
>The last ones that come to mind are Al Bean, "Oops, I pointed the
>camera at the sun" and John Young, "Oops, I tripped over the
>siesmometer cable", and those are long, long ago....
>
>

Of course when there are only two of you on that particular celestial
body it's kind of difficult to spread the blame around. :-)


Pat

[Pat Flannery]

Rusty Barton wrote:

>"The Norwegian-Huygens experiment will be broadcast live on NASAtv.
>Tune in as King Oscar sardines from Norway freeze instantly when
>placed on the surface of Titan!"
>
>
>
>

How did you know about the Stratospherically Soaring Schools of
Saturnian Sky Sardines?

Pat

[OM]

On Sun, 16 Jan 2005 15:15:15 GMT, "Sven Grahn" >
wrote:

>I wish it were that simple, i.e. blaming verything bad in Europe on the
>French. It is deeper. It has to to with the academic culture in Europe - the
>Ivory Tower syndrome....

....True, but if the Italians were responsible, we could have easily
called it the Leaning Tower syndrome. On the other hand, that same
academic culture - or the irrational excuse for said - is responsible
for the fact that certain Lunar landmarks aren't named by those who
made the journy there as it should be.

OM

--

"No ******* ever won a war by dying for | http://www.io.com/~o_m
his country. He won it by making the other | Sergeant-At-Arms
poor dumb ******* die for his country." | Human O-Ring Society

- General George S. Patton, Jr

[OM]

On Sun, 16 Jan 2005 11:21:15 -0600, Pat Flannery >
wrote:

>How did you know about the Stratospherically Soaring Schools of
>Saturnian Sky Sardines?

....Uh, *you* told us about them about five years ago, during the first
Bogus Lockmart Engineer infestation around these parts.

OM

--

"No ******* ever won a war by dying for | http://www.io.com/~o_m
his country. He won it by making the other | Sergeant-At-Arms
poor dumb ******* die for his country." | Human O-Ring Society

- General George S. Patton, Jr

[cyrille vanlerberghe]

Henry Spencer wrote:

>
> No, Jacques Louet of ESA has publicly accepted full responsibility
> (although the actual error was presumably committed by one of his staff).
> He says JPL got confusing and incorrect instructions from ESA.
>

Jacques Louet took full responsability because he was co-head of the
Huygens review board for ESA. But the mistake wasn't made by someone
from his team. It was made by someone of the staff in Darmstadt, at the
ESOC control center. They did not send the good command to turn the
radio receiver on Cassini, but it's even more damning that they did not
check on their telemetry the status of that receiver.
Louet took such a clear position saying it was ESA's fault because
rumors in the press room in Darmstadt were wrongly blaming the JPL for
the mistake.
Cyrille Vanlerberghe