Why Explore Planets / ESA TV Exchanges / 26-04-2002

The next transmission of the ESA TV Service will be:

26-Apr-02 09:15 – 09:30 GMT

Why Explore Planets

ESA TV Exchanges

Background information on the transmission:

Several planets have assembled into a rare alignment this month, as five of them have crowded into a patch of sky small enough that they are all visible in a single glance. The setup provides a planet-watching opportunity that won’t be repeated for a century.

At the moment Mercury, Venus, Mars, are all bunched up in the western sky just after sunset, with bright Jupiter also nearby. By early May three of the planets — Venus, Saturn and Mars — will crowd into an even smaller patch of sky.

In recognition of this rare alignment the ESA TV Service retransmits the “Why Explore Planets?” programme which features real and graphic images of the planets in our solar system.

The 5-minute A-roll contains split audio with an English guide track and is complemented by a B-roll with international sound only, including sound bites with ESA scientists. The script will be on-line shortly, as a PDF document under http://television.esa.int/photos/EbS24595.pdf

This ESA TV Exchanges feed is transmitted by the European Commission’s “Europe by Satellite” (EbS) service. You can find the complete transmission schedule and download scripts and shot lists, also for ESA TV items, from the EbS Web site at http://europa.eu.int/comm/ebs/index.html

More background information can be found on .

Transmission details:Transmission details:EUTELSAT HOT BIRD at 13° East (DVB/MPEG-2)

Horizontal, F=12,476 MHz (MCPC, Europe by Satellite)

SR=27,500 MS/sec, FEC=3/4