Welcome to your first newsletter for the Ecsite Space Group – the forum of science centres, museums, education organisations and space professionals across Europe working to communicate the wonders of space. You can share information about your events, exhibitions, projects or great resources with the Space Group too! Simply contact michaela.livingstone@sciencecentres.org.uk or by filling out this online form.
Steering committee updates
- Next meeting: January, Granada, Spain. Details TBC.
- Plans are underway for the Space Group pre-conference session at Ecsite 2014, watch this space.
- Read the proposed Space Group session submitted for Ecsite 2014.
- Read the Space themed Ecsite newsletter.
Updates from members
Experts wanted: Stargazing nights in Hampshire, UK Winchester (formally INTECH) Science Centre runs free Beginners Stargazing Nights with naked-eye stargazing, binoculars, telescopes, talks and more. The last event had 1,000 attendees! Even in fog or sleet there are typically 250 attendees.
This season’s dates are Sat 30 November and Sat 2 Feb (the latter date is not yet public so please keep this confidential). If anyone has a drop-in display stand you’d like to bring along then please get in touch. We also need one more speaker to offer 3× 30min talks for the February date only.
Contact: Jenny Shipway Read More…
Public Event: The Spaceship Aurora takes off in March! NAROM (The Norwegian Centre for Space related Education) is building a new learning-centre, which focuses on space, the Aurora Borealis and rocket operations. The participants will take part in a mission to launch a sounding rocket into space, as well as take off in a spaceship to investigate the Sun’s effects on our magnetosphere. In addition to solving a scientific puzzle, they must also handle any obstacles that would arise before the countdown-clock reaches zero.
Resource: New planetarium show Google Lunar XPRIZE is launching its new planetarium show this month. ‘Back To The Moon For Good’ is a 24-minute show for digital fixed-dome and portable planetaria, produced by NSC Creative, the award winning team based at the National Space Centre. Narrated by Tim Allen (Toy Story, Galaxy Quest), the show chronicles the history of lunar exploration and introduces teams around the world competing to win the Google Lunar XPRIZE by landing a robotic spacecraft on the Moon before 31 December 2015. The show ends with a tantalising glimpse of a possible scenario for our future on the Moon.
Contact: Cynthia Ashley, or sign up to receive the license Read More…
Resource: Space Showcase World Space Week is a global celebration of all things space from 4-10 October each year. This year hundreds of events were logged. To support communicators and educators link their inspiring events with examples of real world missions, technologies and applications related to space the UK Association for Science and Discovery Centres (ASDC), supported by the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) produced a short booklet. The booklet contains some basic information specifically focused on UK and European space-related activities, and features suggested hands-on activities, and links to extra resources and information. An electronic version of the booklet is available to download.
Project updates The Ecsite Space Group in collaboration with ESA are producing a campaign to run alongside the ESA-led Rosetta mission, which will involve the creation and sharing of resources to support education activities, exhibitions and events to open up the mission for a variety of audiences. Over the coming months we will keep you updated. Last month a call for participation was sent out. For now, here are some brief recaps:
Rosetta events A set of four participative events in 2014 following the key moments of the Rosetta mission will be arranged. For example, Parque de las Ciencias’ Rosetta Day will have a live link via web streaming with the Rosetta control operation centre , workshops, planetarium shows, videos showing the expert´s opinion and the “Rosetta license”. All the visitors will receive a card with some sections related to the Rosetta mission milestones. Every time they participate in one activity they will have their card stamped. At the end, the person who gets all the stamps will receive a nice goodie.
Contact: Carmen Guerra, Parque de las Ciencias
Rosetta Education Resources – time capsule Resources to support science centres and teachers to deliver a one hour workshop will be developed based on the concept of a time capsule to represent the development of our solar system with links to how the Rosetta mission will help us learn more about the solar system’s evolution. A European-wide competition will also be set to seek out the best student-created time capsules.
Contact: Marjolein van Breeme, NEMO
Rosetta Exhibition An exhibit comprised of panels and interactive devices is being developed.
- A free kit with 2D files to download, drawings and instructions for a simple exhibit, e.g. ‘Zoom in on the comet’ and ‘dock with the comet’.
- Kit+ – A kit to buy that will include a virtual immersive exploration of the solar system and a serious video game, simulating the Rosetta Mission.
- Last command sent to the Planck Space Telescope
- Happy Halloween: A space-themed jack-o-lantern
- ESA Video: Mars Showcase
- New CanSat competition announced
- Photos from Ecsite 2013
Contact: Aude Lesty, Cité de l’espace
And more…
Tweet the group! #EcsiteSpace
The next newsletter will be sent at the end of December. Please submit news items by Dec 30 2013