Just lately, Andreas Mogensen, now preparing for his ‘Huginn’ mission to the ISS in 2023, stopped by ESA’s ESOC mission management centre in Darmstadt, Germany, to satisfy with among the specialists who preserve our satellites flying.
Andreas often works at NASA’s Johnson House Middle in Houston as an ISS ‘capcom’, and we don’t usually see him in Europe. A number of months again, whereas returning to Germany for some coaching at ESA’s Astronaut Centre in Cologne, we seized the chance to ask him if he’d prefer to cease over in Darmstadt for a glance behind the scenes at mission management, and he instantly answered, ‘sure’!
Andreas’ studied aeronautical engineering with a concentrate on ‘steering, navigation and management of spacecraft’ and we thought he’d be delighted to satisfy with the groups at mission management doing exactly that type of work for our robotic missions.
We figured he’d additionally get pleasure from assembly colleagues from our House Security programme, particularly those engaged on area particles and area climate, as these are essential areas that affect the day by day lifetime of astronauts on the ISS.
Andreas met with Bruno Sousa and Julia Schwartz, who assist preserve Photo voltaic Orbiter wholesome and on monitor on its mission to collect the closest-ever photos of the Solar, observe the photo voltaic wind and our Star’s polar areas, serving to unravel the mysteries of the photo voltaic cycle.
He additionally met with Stijn Lemmens, one of many analysts maintaining tabs on the area particles scenario in orbit, and Melanie Heil, a scientist serving to ESA perceive how area climate and our lively Solar can have an effect on missions in orbit and essential infrastructure – like energy grids – on floor.
We hope you get pleasure from this energetic and informative day at mission management as a lot as Andreas and the groups at ESOC did!
