#rosettalegacy

On 15 February, #RosettaLegacy top-prize winner Cristina Romero visited the European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC), ESA’s technical heart in Noordwijk, the Netherlands, as part of her award.

Cristina is greatly inspired by space missions like ESA’s Rosetta and dreams of studying aerospace engineering: http://rosetta-legacy.tumblr.com/post/151460034152/

Photos above, credit: ESA–C.Carreau 

Cristina had a great time visiting the facilities, learning about space science and exploration, and meeting ESA scientists Matt Taylor (Rosetta project scientist), Olivier Witasse (JUICE project scientist), Ana Heras (PLATO study scientist) and Johannes Benkhoff (BepiColombo project scientist).

We at ESA greatly enjoyed Cristina’s visit. Space science & exploration are truly inspiring!

Impressions of Rosetta’s Legacy: an ebook

In September–October 2016, we invited you to share your stories, images, videos, creations and experiences on the Rosetta Legacy tumblr to convey what the mission had meant to you.

We decided to collect all contributions in an e-book, to keep a long-lasting record of the mission’s impact on a variety of public audiences. This publication presents a collection of these outstanding contributions and provides a taste of Rosetta’s legacy for fellow science communicators, scientists and engineers, educators, space enthusiasts – anyone who was fascinated by the mission.

The e-book (pdf, 33MB) is available here.

Between 6 September and 7 October 2016, we collected 235 contributions to this tumblr. A huge and sincere thank you to all participants who shared experiences, stories and images of how the mission of Rosetta and Philae to Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko has inspired their lives, study and career choices, artistic practice and other creative endeavours!

The authenticity and ingenuity of the submitted entries was overwhelming, and it has been challenging to pick one top prize winner (apologies for the delay!).

One entry in particular caught the attention of the ESA judges for the combination of creative effort and motivation, so we selected Cristina Romero from Spain as the top prize winner. The prize consists in a special visit to ESTEC, ESA’s technical heart in Noordwijk (The Netherlands).

Below is Cristina's winning entry (translated into English):

“Missions like the one of Rosetta have allowed me to discover the wonderful world of space, and as a result I started to look for more information about these topics and I discovered my passion: space.

Since then, every day I need to learn something new, to read the news about advances in aerospace industry and follow the current missions.

I ended up with such a fascination with all this, that my big dream is to be able one day to study Aerospace Engineering, in order to take part to wonderful missions like this one. This is what's pushing me to keep working hard every day, to save up to accomplish my dream, and every time it takes a little less effort to achieve it.

On September 30, the day Rosetta landed on the comet, while I was watching the webcast, I created this pendant-shaped piece to remember everything that this mission has meant to me. It is entirely handmade with polymer clay, crafted while Rosetta was landing to finally rest on Comet 67P, together with Philae.

Many thanks to ESA and the entire team for sharing this mission with us.

Cristina”

Back to December 10, 2014 here was five year old Jorge from Portugal, with his new Rosetta and Philae model…

Dear Rosetta friends,

The submissions to participate to the Rosetta Legacy competition & win ESA prizes have closed on Friday 7 October 18:00 CEST.

You are still welcome to contribute to the #RosettaLegacy campaign and post your contributions so they will appear on the tumblr (but you will not be eligible to win prizes).

Many thanks to all of you who have shared their incredible experiences inspired by Rosetta & Philae and contributed to making this tumblr truly amazing.

It is also thanks to you that the legacy of Rosetta’s mission will live on forever.

With best wishes,

Last few hours to answer the question:  What has the Rosetta mission meant to you?

Share your Rosetta story/image/video on this tumblr until 18:00 CEST today (Friday 7 October) to contribute to the Rosetta Legacy and win prizes: Rosetta & Philae plush toys + a visit to ESA’s ESTEC centre! ~~ The Rosetta Legacy Team

Dear followers, contributors & Rosetta Legacy aficionados,

Many thanks again for filling this tumblr with your amazing stories, pictures, drawings and other extraordinary material inspired by Rosetta & Philae!

While the legacy of the mission will certainly live on for a very long time, the campaign will close as of tomorrow, Friday 7 October 18:00 CEST, so for all those who haven’t contributed yet, make sure to post your entry before then!

Meanwhile, here is the second-last batch of spot prize winners who will receive a plush version of Rosetta & Philae:

* Nayanee Perera and her beautiful story (Rosetta really did change my life) of how the mission motivated her to look for a new job and change a few things in her life, which made her very happy! 

* Kate Doolan who spreads the love for the mission talking with school kids about space and astronomy (Thank you Rosetta!)

* The Ne-Notoka Cofame association in Mexico, who named their portable planetarium after none other than the lander, Philae!

* Zeynep Oktay, who was deeply influenced by the mission and followed it from the beginning to the end, as well as creating Rosetta & Philae figures together with her 70 year-old her mother:

* Nelion, 7 years old, and Sendeyo Plesner, 4 years old, who both made beautiful drawings of Rosetta and Philae (and their mother, Katrine, who has big dreams for the next return of Comet Halley in 46 years!)

To everyone else, thanks for following Rosetta & making sure that the mission’s legacy truly goes on to live forever!