BringingCheopsto life

Challenge

Following the success of the anthropomorphic storytelling for the Rosetta and Philae ‘Once Upon a Time…’ cartoon series and ‘The Epic Adventures of BepiColombo’, Design & Data was approached by the Cheops Consortium to develop an explainer cartoon animation for the Cheops satellite mission. The goal of this project was to generate awareness of Cheops, the Characterising Exoplanet Satellite, and to communicate the science behind the mission in a fun and exciting way, all through a cartoon version of a satellite system.

Idea, solution

In order to illustrate the character, Design & Data converted the satellite’s core features into recognizable, human-like features. The payload was based on a single medium-sized telescope, giving Cheops its “eye” to the sky. Its back was comprised of a sun shield, similar to a backpack, to prevent direct sunlight on the payload. Additional features were also added to the cartoon, including arms and a notepad to demonstrate how Cheops takes notes and characterizes distant exoplanets to discover what these alien worlds are made of.

Result

The final result consisted of a four minute and forty second 2D animated video, highlighting the details of the Cheops mission to a wide and varied audience. This video was promoted by all eleven consortium member states – Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the UK – and the original English version was translated into multiple languages, including French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, and Swedish. If your science communication could also benefit from anthropomorphic storytelling, talk to us today!

For more information on the mission, visit: https://www.esa.int/Cheops and follow updates on the mission on social media under #Cheops and on Twitter @ESA_CHEOPS.