ESA at #rp15 conference with Rosetta and Alexander Gerst
Members of the Rosetta team and ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst presented their missions at re:publica on 6 May, one of the largest conferences on digital culture and society. Held in Berlin, this year’s event attracted over 7000 visitors, with 850 speakers from 60 countries.
Last November, millions held their breath as ESA and its partners made history by landing on a comet. Our heroes were – and still are – two robotic probes, the Rosetta orbiter and the small Philae lander.
The very same day, celebrity Kim Kardashian tried to #breaktheinternet, but Twitter statistics quickly showed that people were much more interested in #CometLanding – an epic win for (space) science.
Rosetta team members came together to reveal the secrets behind the mission’s spectacular social media campaign. The Rosetta panel included ESA Flight Director Andrea Accomazzo and DLR’s Koen Geurts, Philae technical manager, who both offered a scientific and engineering perspective.
ESA’s Emily Baldwin and DLR’s Karin Ranero Celius, both space science editors and writers, revealed the magic ingredients of the Rosetta social media campaign.
The unique #CometLanding Twitter conversation between @ESA_Rosetta and @Philae2014 and the humanisation of Rosetta and Philae not only helped to convey complex space science to a wider public, but also achieved a high level of engagement with digital society.
ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst presented his #BlueDot mission to a packed audience of 1200: “I am delighted to be here at re:publica, in particular because I know that you are the ones who via your hundreds and thousands of retweets on Twitter and your activity on social media contributed so much to making my mission the major media success it was.”
He spoke engagingly about how he lived and worked aboard the International Space Station for six months. re:publica organisers later referred to his presentation as “one of the most beautiful moments of #rp15.”
For further information or feedback, please contact:
Marco Trovatello
ESA Communication Department
Strategy Advisor & Cross-Media Coordinator
Tel: +33 1 53 69 8168
Email: Marco.Trovatello@esa.int
