In conversation with Mark McCaughrean
67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko (ESA/Rosetta/NavCam)\n\nOn Monday 24th August, Cardiff was treated to a public talk by Prof Mark McCaughrean, Senior Science Advisor in the European Space Agency\u2019s Directorate of Science and Robotic Exploration. Mark spoke about the Rosetta mission, which has been\xa0studying comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko for the past year, including the landing of\xa0Philae on the comet\u2019s surface amid huge media\xa0attention.\nIn this month\u2019s Pythagorean Astronomy, I had a fascinating chat with\xa0Mark about his work at ESA,\xa0and his role\xa0leading\xa0the communications department. The public attention around Rosetta\xa0helped make it one of the\xa0great successes of the modern space age, and that is largely thanks\xa0to the efforts of\xa0the ESA science communications team \u2013 whether that be the press events around key mission milestones, the science fiction movie \u201cAmbition\u201c, or the anthropomorphism of the spacecraft in a series of short\xa0cartoons. But it\u2019s not without its adverse effects, as the science teams behind the cameras and other instruments often want to keep\xa0their ground-breaking\xa0images under their belt.\n\nOriginally broadcast on 27th August\xa02015 as part of Pythagoras\u2019 Trousers on Radio Cardiff.