I'm not going to have this argument with you, again, Jon. You clearly have an opinion on what ESA should be doing. I have mine. They are very different.

I will leave with these three points

1) There IS a problem. Our kids don't know ESA exists. The public don't know what ESA is doing. Our politicians don't see what ESA is for. Yet all three parties are, or will be paying for ESA with their taxes. Fortunately, an increasing number of ESA scientists I have spoken to see the problem and agree that it needs to change. They speak of ESA outreach in the same words I do. They recognise the problem, but lack the resources to resolve it.

2) I am taking time off work to go to science conferences to make presentations to, and liase with European scientists regarding outreach (see my TPS Blog entires, and two papers with Europlanet). They are seeing the benefits of various outreach efforts from across the pond and are trying to get the money together to achieve similar goals

3) There is no centralised or contractual responsibility for data disemintation or public outreach within Europlean planetary science. This is the root cause of why the situation has arisen in the way that it has, and it is this that must change.

I will continue to complain about, fight for improvements of, and campaign for funding to help European planetary science outreach until it improves.