Bluedot has revealed its hotly anticipated science line-up for 2020

Bluedot has today announced the first wave of science names for this year’s festival, joining a weekend of music and cosmic culture that includes headline appearances from Björk, Groove Armada, Metronomy and more.

The 2020 science line-up features headline talks from astronaut Tim Peake and Ann Druyan (co-creator with Carl Sagan of the legendary Cosmos TV series and film Contact and the creative director of the NASA Voyager missions), alongside a special Thursday night Opening Concert of The Hallé performing a unique live score to the original Cosmos series.

Tim Peake will explore his time aboard the International Space Station, and the role of the European Space Agency in the future of space travel. 

Ann Druyan’s story as the co-creator of Cosmos and Contact alongside her late husband Carl Sagan will be the subject of a special ‘in conversation’ event at the festival.

She’ll be discussing her career as an Emmy Award-winning writer and producer and director of the two most recent seasons of Cosmos, as well as the creative director behind NASA’s Voyager Interstellar Message Project.

And Ilan Eshkeri, in collaboration with the European Space Agency, will present Space Station Earth, an immersive new cinematic show which allows the audience to experience space travel through the eyes of an astronaut.

In space, astronauts share a similar shift in consciousness, often called the Overview Effect. They quickly learn and appreciate how everything on earth is connected – land, oceans, weather systems and people, and how we need to protect and look after our home.

Space Station Earth will allow us to share unimaginable journey into space, using real footage and images while celebrating the closest we have to actual super heroes: astronauts.

The previously unseen footage has been taken on-board the International Space Station by the six European Space Corp Astronauts of the class of 2009: Tim Peake, Andreas Mogensen, Luca Parmitano, Thomas Pesquet, Alexander Gerst and Samantha Cristoforetti.

Other speakers returning for 2020 include Chris Lintott of BBC’s The Sky At Night, Libby Jackson of UK Space Agency, and Open University’s Monica Grady.

And Yan and Noble from the Mercury Prize-nominated British Sea Power will perform a special live soundtrack to Out Of The Present, a feature film covering the story of the Mir space station in the context of the Soviet Union’s collapse.

Other science speakers announced today include Andy Miah, Chris Newman and Julia Steinberger, Chris Jones, Daniel M Davis, Eric Drass, Stephen Wilkins, Chris Parkes from UoM, Katie Mack and Jim Wild, as well as live streaming from American astronomer Jill Tarter, who is best known for her work on the search for extraterrestrial intelligence.

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