Pint of Science 2020: a fully digital version of the international festival 09-21-2020 |  6 minutes

In the current context, the science festival usually organized in bars and pubs in many countries and hundreds cities was this year held entirely online and live.

Each country taking part in the digital format was responsible for organizing interactive conferences during which scientists and science communicators presented various topics and answered questions posed by the audience.

* One of the posters for this year’s festival

From ‘Tech Me Out’ and ‘Planet Earth’ to ‘Our Body’, ‘Our Society’ and ‘Beautiful Mind’, all areas of science were represented this year in different categories. ArianeGroup took part in the ‘Atoms to Galaxies’ category with two conferences on space propulsion.

Lionel Cariès, ArianeGroup propulsion engineer in Vernon, France, got the ball rolling by explaining the various challenges involved in an Ariane launch, particularly in terms of precision, since each launch aims for a precise orbit, and high reliability to protect the payload throughout the flight.

* Start of Lionel Cariès’ presentation

He talked about innovations such as 3D printing and the Prometheus® engine, and, while answering questions from the online audience, Lionel explained just how thrilling each launch is, especially when you feel the Earth shake! Stars were definitely sparkling in everyone’s eyes that night.

* Lionel and organizer Élodie Chabrol answering internet users live.

Then on Wednesday, Sebastian Soller, ArianeGroup propulsion engineer in Ottobrunn, Germany, took over and described the various steps involved in producing an ArianeGroup engine. From design to manufacturing, through to testing and ignition, a whole spectrum of expertise is required in our industry. Quality is the watchword throughout the entire production process.

* Sebastian Soller’s presentation

The last day of the festival is always a great moment with various versions of the traditional quiz rolled out in the different countries. On Pint of Science Germany and France, the online audience responded live to questions from science communicators, with a view to winning prizes, particularly some ArianeGroup goodies.

Our Twitter followers were also able to do the quiz in English.

* The French quiz, hosted by several science communicators (here Élodie Chabrol, Fiona from Science de Comptoir, and Astropierre)

In France, with ‘knowledge, science and lots of laughter’ on the program, a whole host of communicators took part, including Les Langues de Cha’, L’Esprit Sorcier, Science4All, La boîte à curiosités, Sébastien Carassou from Sense Of Wonder, Scitania, Science de comptoir, FuzzyRaptor, Astropierre and Brusicor02.

In Germany, quiz was particularly well attended, drawing participants from a wide range of countries, much to the pleasure of the organizers and the public.

* The illustrated German quiz of Pint of Science DE

In short, it was a great festival despite the challenges of organizing it online. Pint of Science 2020 was over in a flash, with barely enough time to say ‘Lift-off’!