Not too long ago, 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 a number of the specialists who preserve our satellites flying.
Andreas normally works at NASA’s Johnson House Heart in Houston as an ISS ‘capcom’, and we don’t typically see him in Europe. Just a few 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 deal with ‘steerage, navigation and management of spacecraft’ and we thought he’d be delighted to satisfy with the groups at mission management doing exactly that kind of work for our robotic missions.
We figured he’d additionally take pleasure in assembly colleagues from our House Security programme, particularly those engaged on house particles and house climate, as these are essential areas that affect the every 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 protecting tabs on the house particles state of affairs in orbit, and Melanie Heil, a scientist serving to ESA perceive how house climate and our lively Solar can have an effect on missions in orbit and essential infrastructure – like energy grids – on floor.
We hope you take pleasure in this full of life and informative day at mission management as a lot as Andreas and the groups at ESOC did!
