Rosetta Strato Campaign · Ryan J. M. Laird

A digital and educational campaign inspired by ESA's Rosetta mission and the Philae lander, combining design, storytelling and public engagement to communicate the mission and support a charity campaign.

Overview

Rosetta Strato was a digital campaign built around the story of ESA’s Rosetta mission and the Philae lander.

The project used design, digital storytelling and educational communication to bring the mission to a wider audience. It connected the scientific and engineering story of Rosetta and Philae with a public-facing campaign designed to generate interest, communicate the significance of the mission and support a charitable initiative.

The project sits at the intersection of space communication, digital design, science education and campaign storytelling.

The mission story

ESA’s Rosetta mission became one of the defining planetary-science missions of its era, travelling to and studying a comet and deploying the Philae lander to its surface.

The mission provided an unusually compelling story for public engagement: a spacecraft travelling across the Solar System, rendezvousing with a comet and attempting a controlled landing on a small, active planetary body.

Rosetta and Philae therefore provided both a scientific subject and a powerful communications narrative.

The Rosetta Strato campaign built on this story to create a more accessible public-facing experience.

Campaign purpose

The campaign was intended to translate a complex space mission into an engaging digital story.

Rather than presenting the mission only through technical information, the project focused on the human-readable narrative surrounding Rosetta and Philae.

The campaign combined:

Space-science storytelling
Digital design
Visual communication
Educational engagement
Public outreach
Campaign promotion
Charity fundraising

This made the project both a communications exercise and an example of using space exploration as a vehicle for public engagement.

Communication approach

The campaign centred on the idea that the story of a space mission can be made accessible without removing the scientific context.

Rosetta and Philae offered a particularly strong narrative structure because the mission contained clear stages and moments of public interest: the journey through space, arrival at the comet, deployment of Philae and the subsequent scientific and engineering challenges.

The digital campaign therefore used the mission itself as the organising narrative.

The emphasis was on making the subject visually engaging and understandable for audiences who might not otherwise encounter detailed planetary-science material.

Design

Design was central to the project.

The visual treatment was intended to create an immediate connection with the Rosetta and Philae story while providing a clear route through the campaign content.

The project demonstrates how visual design can support science communication by providing a framework through which complex subjects can be explored.

The campaign imagery and associated digital material provided a recognisable identity for the project while retaining the connection to the underlying mission.

Digital campaign

The project was developed as a digital campaign rather than simply as a static information page.

The campaign connected visual material, mission storytelling and external resources to provide audiences with multiple ways of engaging with the Rosetta/Philae story.

The campaign included a video component and was associated with a charitable campaign hosted through Indiegogo.

Campaign video

The project video provides a visual introduction to the Rosetta Strato concept and its relationship to the Rosetta and Philae mission.

Watch the Rosetta Strato campaign video

Charity campaign

Rosetta Strato was also connected to a charity campaign hosted through Indiegogo.

The campaign provided a mechanism for audiences to engage with the project beyond simply viewing its digital content, linking space communication with a charitable objective.

View the Rosetta Strato charity campaign

Educational engagement

The Rosetta and Philae story naturally lends itself to education because it connects fundamental scientific concepts with a real space mission.

The campaign provided an opportunity to communicate subjects including:

Cometary science
Spacecraft exploration
Planetary science
Space engineering
Mission operations
Scientific discovery
The challenges of operating spacecraft far from Earth

The project therefore demonstrates how a contemporary space mission can be used as the basis for informal science education and public engagement.

Public outreach

The project was associated with Universe Awareness (UNAWE), an international educational initiative focused on using astronomy and space to inspire and educate young people.

The associated UNAWE updates provide additional contemporary context for the campaign and its educational engagement.

Role of storytelling

One of the central lessons from the project is the value of narrative in science communication.

A space mission contains an enormous amount of technical information, but audiences do not necessarily engage with technical information simply because it is available.

Rosetta and Philae already possessed a compelling narrative. The role of the campaign was to make that narrative accessible through design and digital communication.

This approach helps bridge the gap between:

scientific achievement → understandable story → public engagement

Contribution

Rosetta Strato demonstrates experience in combining design, digital communication and space-science storytelling.

The project brought together:

Digital campaign development
Visual communication
Space-sector storytelling
Science education
Public engagement
Charity campaigning
Video communication

It provides an example of using a major space mission as the foundation for a broader communication and engagement campaign.

Outcomes

The project resulted in a public-facing campaign centred on Rosetta and Philae, supported by digital, video and educational material.

Key outputs included:

Rosetta Strato digital campaign
Campaign visual identity and design
Campaign video
Charity campaign presence
Educational and public-engagement content
Association with UNAWE educational outreach

Impact

The project’s impact was primarily through communication and engagement.

Rather than attempting to reproduce the scientific work of the Rosetta mission, the campaign focused on communicating its significance and making the story accessible to wider audiences.

It demonstrates how creative communication can extend the reach of space science beyond specialist audiences.

Lessons learned

The Rosetta Strato campaign illustrates several principles relevant to space and science communication:

1. Start with the story

Major scientific projects often contain compelling narratives that can provide the structure for public communication.

2. Use design to reduce barriers

Good visual communication can make technically complex subjects easier to approach without requiring audiences to understand the underlying science in advance.

3. Connect communication to action

A campaign can move beyond awareness by giving audiences a meaningful way to participate, such as educational engagement or charitable support.

4. Treat space as a human story

Space exploration is ultimately carried out by people, organisations and communities. Communicating those stories can make technically sophisticated missions much more relatable.

Project significance

Rosetta Strato is an example of how space exploration, digital design and science communication can be brought together within a single campaign.

The project used one of the most engaging stories in modern planetary exploration — Rosetta’s journey to a comet and the deployment of Philae — as a foundation for public-facing communication.

Its lasting value lies not only in the campaign itself, but in demonstrating the potential of creative communication to make ambitious scientific and engineering projects accessible to broader audiences.