The Ecsite Space Group Annual Meeting was hosted this year at the National Museum of Science and Technology Leonardo da Vinci in Milan, Italy, on 3-4 November.

One of the goals of the Group, that includes today more than 80 institutions, is to exchange and design collaborative projects to better share European space activities with the general public. By bringing together representatives of museums, science centres, Ecsite and ESA, the Annual Meeting aimed to discuss:

• the next steps of the collaborative projects around the theme “Space for life”,
• the updating of the kit developed for the ESA-Ecsite campaign “Hook up with Rosetta”,
• the contribution at the next Ecsite Annual Conference “The Colour of Cooperation”, in Graz, from 7 to 11 June 2016.

Collaborative projects 2016 to 2018:

Following the conclusions of the workshop in Trento, according to the feasibility study carried out by Ecsite, and in line with activities of the leaders and with the next ESA milestones in the field of human spaceflight, solar system exploration and Earth observation, representatives of science centres and museums agreed to develop one collaborative project for year with the following timeline :

• 2016, The International Space Station: living and working in space; led by Cite de l’Espace, Toulouse, France; Tycho Brahe planetarium, Copenhagen, Denmark. Format of the kit: exhibition panel. Contact: Aude Lesty, a.lesty@cite-espace.com;Tina Ibsen, tina@tycho.dk
• 2017, Is there life out there?; led by the Science Museum Principe Felipe of Valencia, Spain. Format of the kit: educational project related to ExoMars mission. Contact: Jose Gordillo, jagordillo@cac.es
• 2018, Climate change: Monitoring the atmosphere and oceans from space; led by Ciencia Viva, Lisbon, Portugal. Format of the kit: audiovisual material. Contact: Ana Noronha, anoronha@cienciaviva.pt

Museums and science centres all over Europe will work in coordination with the leaders of each project and ESA, to develop the read to use kit that will be disseminated and promoted by Ecsite.

Further, participants of the meeting have discussed the preparation for the next Ecsite Annual Conference. The Space Group will organise a two days pre-conference workshop on 7-8 June 2016. Additionally, the Space Group and ESA organise a session during the main conference and a booth at the Business Bistro.

The report of the annual meeting can be downloaded here.

Photos and presentations are available here.

For further information on how to get involved in the Space Group activities, please contact Antonina Khodzhaeva at akhodzhaeva@ecsite.eu