Planet Doodle

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Planet Doodle is a project to present the science of the planets and space to the general public, primarily through the medium of cartoons. Every two weeks, a Planet Doodle comic strip will be released on a dedicated website that will provide what's hoped will be an explanation of some aspect of current Solar System scientific research. This can be a summary of a particular planet or moon, a concept in space physics, a mission and its aims, or an explanation of how a particular instrument is used to learn more about planets and space science. During the three years of the project, over 70 comic strips will be produced. These will be available to the public on a dedicated website, and can be downloaded as pdf files for easy printing. These will be free to use for educational purposes. The Planet Doodle comic strip will be produced by Geraint Jones, who will complement his drawing activities with public talks which will make full use of the Planet Doodle cartoons. The talks will be aimed at a range of audiences, from primary school to undergraduate levels.The final aspect of the Planet Doodle project is sonification. This is a technique to make space science topics more accessible. Pictures of planet and moons are easy to understand, but many instruments on spacecraft record information that it more difficult to interpret, such as the energies of ions and electrons that are encountered by a spacecraft. It has already been demonstrated by others that by converting these less accessible data sets into sounds, they become more accessible, and, hopefully, will help the general public better understand the importance of the information sent back by various spacecraft instruments.Through cartoons, talks, and weird space sounds, Planet Doodle will bring to many, varied audiences the excitement of our studies of planets, moons, and comets.