Ever wondered how space affects your daily life? 'All You Need is Space' is a new comic from the European Union that covers the exciting, and often under-appreciated, topic of space in our everyday lives. From the better-known uses of satellites, such as communication and global satellite navigation, to the more surprisingly ways space touches out lives day-to-day, like traffic jam control and super-precise atomic clocks.
The comic is an on-going story, following the life of a teenage schoolgirl named Elena (who doesn’t look like stereotypical science geek!) Each page covers a new topic as Elena encounters all the amazing ways that space affects her daily life: meteorological satellites provide her with an accurate weather forecast, satellite imaging of the Earth allows her to chose a holiday destination and she even learns that satellites can detect and predict the spread of disease.
All U Need is Space is presented in a fun, visual format and the information provided is kept short, but it is coherent and intriguing, and a list of useful websites have been included at the back of the book for those who want more information. I would recommend the comic for school children between 7-16 years. Most adults would probably learn something new from the comic, however they might not want to be seen in public reading a comic book narrated by a teenage girl!
The comic would fit comfortably into a formal education environment but could also entertain children as an extracurricular read. As a lover of games, my favourite feature has to be the hidden sci-fi references: each page contains a reference to a famous TV series or film. See if you can spot them all! The entire comic is free to view online or download from: http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/flipbook/all-u-need-is-space/.
Reviewer: Sarah Roberts (EU-UNAWE/Leiden University)
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