Why does space need PR?

Photo by Andrey Bodrov .

Often in discussions, especially when the implementation of Western space programs is discussed, comments like "This is all PR" or "This is all Hollywood" slip through. It is understood that behind beautiful pictures there is no real content or it is insignificant, whereas in our home there is an accomplishment after accomplishment, but Russia has its own special way, so there seems to be no need to read out domestic achievements. In my opinion, this position is short-sighted and just stupid. Let us try to understand what cosmic PR is, does Roscosmos and the Russian Academy of Sciences need it and why?

In Russia, it seems since the 90s, a stereotype of public relations has developed in society, like some kind of black magic, such as NLP or "gypsy hypnosis." A "PR man" is someone like a shaman: he came, knocked on a tambourine, and fame and fame came to the customer, and his competitors are a shame ... But after all, Roscosmos is above it! No PR, no overseas fabrications ... Only rockets, only hardcore!

Let's return to the sources. The obvious fact: PR (public relations) is just public relations. It would be naive to believe that the dialogue of cosmonautics with society is a Western notion. The popularization of space exploration was well developed in the Soviet Union. Non-fiction books for preschoolers , pupils and adults; journalists worked at PCU at the most crucial and crucial moments of the space programs; and in the 60s, Komsomolskaya Pravda journalist Yaroslav Golovanov even prepared for a flight into space. He is still remembered with good words in the industry. The astronauts were idols, and on TV they played literate and detailed documentary films and broadcasts. And all this was PR, if we speak in modern language. Not Hollywood, but Mosfilm, very good for those times.
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There was another side of PR in the USSR, the one called propaganda. Then any cosmic success was extolled as the achievement of socialism, the achievement of a people going to communism. Those. PR of the cosmos, in addition to the passion of romantic natures, had a more pragmatic function - the conviction of the people that it is led by the most advanced and caring Party in the world. This, in turn, imposed stringent requirements on the coverage of failures. They were not covered at all. The satellite missed by the moon - we launched the first artificial planet. The Martian apparatus did not come out on the departure trajectory - hurray to the next launch of the near-Earth satellite of the Cosmos series. A rocket exploded on the launch pad ... What kind of rocket? Are you spreading rumors ?! Come on, citizen ...

Now times have changed. News agencies about events in the space industry will learn before its head. All launches of top-secret ballistic missiles, successful and unsuccessful, can be found in Wikipedia . A secret mission, a secret satellite launched from a military space center, can be learned with the help of Google and ingenuity. Even if “ours” do not surrender, there will always be caring “western partners” who will tell you how something went somewhere wrong here.

The domestic cosmonautics is still trying to live by Soviet standards: it works — don't touch it, it stopped working — keep quiet . Or pretend it works. And all the same, that the whole world is discussing a Russian ship flying "on one wing". The head of Roscosmos [the former] will still say " There was nothing wrong ."



You can talk a lot about the results of such myopia, but I will give just one example. Here, on the website of the Rossiyskaya Gazeta, they published an interview with an official of Roskosmos. The official tells about the "Angara", about the "East", about the exploration of the Moon, while the text is decorated with banners that refer to other space news on the newspaper's website.


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And what do we see: against the background of conversations from Roskosmos?

The ESO Europeans looked at a molecular cloud in the galaxy.
American cargo spacecraft SpaceX docked to the ISS.
NASA Curiosity Mars Rover found organics on Mars.
NASA / ESA Hubble telescope made a unique photo panorama of Andromeda galaxy.
The Chinese CNSA spacecraft flew to the moon.
NASA astronomers saw an explosion at the center of our galaxy ...

Let me remind you that Rossiyskaya Gazeta is the official body of the government of the Russian Federation. Those. the problem is not that the editors deliberately hush up domestic achievements in space. Nobody just told them about domestic achievements, did not chew in a detailed press release, did not prepare colorful illustrations for which NASA, ESA and ESO releases are famous. Because there are no people in Russia who would be engaged in such work.

Well, there are such. But they are very few. Here, for example, on the site of the INP MSU there was an excellent description of the scientific instrument “NUKLON” , which was recently launched into space on the Resurs-P2 satellite. We see the guys have tried well and lovingly told about their device. I hope the publications about the results of his work will be just as diligently prepared.

On the Roscosmos website, periodically interesting materials about scientific research also slip through, for example, according to the Matreshka-R experiment or the recent results of RadioAstron. But these materials drown in an endless stream of meetings, refueling rockets, trees planted in the avenues of astronauts and other routine.

Yes, there are those who are willing to communicate, tell, make the domestic space closer to society. But they are fed up with norms, prohibitions, prescriptions, regime, and the fear that their superiors will not understand their zeal and frankness. For two years of my communication with representatives of the space industry, only one person was able to confidently say: "Write everything that I heard, I am not afraid of anyone." Ultimately, almost any manifestation of openness is a manifestation of goodwill, and not an awareness of the necessity and usefulness of a policy of openness and trust.

Now, after such an excursion into the modern realities of Russian space, let us return to the previous question: why do you need this overseas PR or our Russian public relations?

I will state my arguments:

1) Society is not only valuable fur , taxes, it is also the main source of labor. Anyone who is more or less familiar with the situation in the space industry or science understands that the lack of personnel is one of the most important problems of the Russian cosmonautics. Few applications to the cosmonaut corps are just the tip of a huge iceberg! Now there are not enough professionals anywhere, either in mechanical engineering, or in a military woman, or in shipbuilding, or in aircraft manufacturing. They pay about the same everywhere, so in an unspoken competition, PR comes in: “Hey, guys! You can collect screwdriver Fords, you can store radioactive ashes for our neighbors, or you can Cosmos! Yes, yes, the very space where Gagarin , the moon tractor, and the immense Universe. Your product can rust in a ditch in five years, and it can study black holes in Googlellyon kilometers from Earth. The choice is yours! "

2) Morality. The cosmonaut is perhaps not such an idol as 30 years ago, but it is all the same honor, respect, dignity. And what about the thousands of workers, engineers and doctors who ensured his flight? What can a person hear in a pub or in an online forum, if it is recognized that he makes rockets? Some of the interlocutors will say "Wow", and someone will remind you about inverted sensors . All have seen the Protons falling down? And successful launches have been turned into a dismal routine by the press service of Roskosmos that almost no one notices them. From “Angara” they tried to make a show, but they were so afraid of their own courage that they limited themselves to only one spectator of the live broadcast ...

So the task of a competent PR is to show how cool the work of those who make space from eight to five, five days a week. So that the "rocket engineer" or "astrophysicist" was no less cool than the "cosmonaut" or at least the "skeet specialist". And a person who is proud of his work will do it better. Of course, salary decides a lot, but motivation also contributes when the salary approaches a state of “missing”.

3) Future. Even if we want to implement the not yet written, but already close Federal space program 2015-2025, we lack the current labor market resources. We need a young and ambitious "blood", which will feed the industry with its enthusiasm and move the space program into the future.

Today in the toy store, with the word "space" you will be led to racks with lightsabers, tiefighters and Darth Vader helmets. At best, plastic telescopes or Space Shuttle Lego will be shown. In bookstores, a little better now: astronomy or astronautics can be found decent editions, but 80 percent - this will be Western reprints.
For the whole country there are only two quite good space museums: at the Exhibition of Economic Achievements in Moscow, and in Kaluga, but they are also far from modern traditions. I don’t know how in Kaluga, but at VDNH, 60% of the staff seem to know only two phrases: "Do not touch!" and "Do not take pictures!". The Moscow planetarium only more or less stretches to the ideals of interactivity, and to involve the young visitor in the process of comprehending the surrounding world.

I am not saying that we should rather rivet space toys, write books and build museums. You can start with available resources: there are museums at every space enterprise, but almost all of them are in closed areas or in general in a restricted area. On their basis, you can create interactive, educational space centers, not worse than the best Western samples. To bring to the children not boring guides, but real space specialists who will tell, show and teach. To support book enthusiasts, or leading rocket-modeling circles, or creating popular science experimentations and interaktoriums . Now, all sorts of robotic, rocket-modeling, satellite -building festivals and competitions are starting to develop in the country - it’s enough to support them, help with development and ... yes, with PR.

4) Advertising. Perhaps the average Russian citizen is not going to buy a satellite for himself, but if the foreign press begins to write about our devices and our research, this is already a claim to the global market for space services. Potential customers of space technology, using real examples, are convinced of the possibilities of Russian industry and science, and there they are not far from the order, the main thing is that marketing specialists and engineers should work no worse than PR specialists.

5) Clamps Supporting. Not the most noble motive, but the most logical for the state and politicians. From the point of view of the state, research and manned space can be compared with sport. In the budget of the country they find funds for the Olympics or the World Cup. And what are the practical goals in financing sports and participating in championships? The most obvious answer: a demonstration to the world, what healthy, strong, brave citizens of our country. And, I will emphasize, the state is investing not only in sports, but also in the information coverage of the competitions - this very PR.

So cosmonautics, and indeed fundamental science, is a demonstration to the whole world, which citizens of our country are smart . Cosmos is the Olympics of the brains. Why not show the success of our scientists and engineers around the world? Where are the exciting television films about Radioastron, Internet videos about the assembly of Spectra-UV, or fire tests of the descent vehicles ExoMars and Luna-25? ..

Someone will say that the sport is more exciting, attracts gambling fans, but interesting space missions and scientific experiments can be no less interesting. Suffice it to recall the landing of the Curiosity rover, the Philae probe landing on a comet or the launch of the Large Hadron Collider. Competent PR makes the show even from serious scientific programs, and this is a sense of involvement, experience and support from citizens.



I think these arguments are enough to make a simple conclusion: the cosmos needs PR. Especially ambitious, research, risky, demonstrating that in Russia live and work smart, talented and brave scientists and engineers. It is necessary to invest in the domestic space PR, to look for talented specialists: journalists, photographers, cameramen, designers, to attract producers and showmen ... Everyone who wants to make space closer and more interesting for every citizen of Russia, and any other country. Enthusiasts will always be there - it's a cosmos, but any work must be paid for, this must also be understood. I hope the new leadership of Roskosmos is aware of this need, and positive changes will take place not only in industry, but also in public relations.