Monday January 19th 2009

The pace is beginning to quicken after the Christmas break. Everyone was pretty exhausted and very few people got much of a summer holiday: months of constant stress take a toll in the end and we are conscious of the need to pace ourselves because the period to launch and the five or six months immediately following launch are going to be very intense indeed.

Overall we have a pretty fit team. With most of us doing desk jobs, the need for physical exercise is not to be underestimated to help to stand the pace. Almost everyone does some form of exercise. Some people cycle, some run (we have two, dedicated marathon and half marathon runners), some go to the gym regularly, some play tennis (we have several very handy players), we have several dedicated golfers (it’s surprising how much a round of golf takes out of you if you are not used to it), one team member’s eyes light up when any dangerous outdoor activity is mentioned (we are convinced that he has no intention of living to see the end of the helium!) and at lunch time we all walk: a fairly brisk circuit around the perimeter after lunch before going back to our offices. The fitter and stronger you are, the better you cope with stress and a hard pace.

Right now things are building up to the next round of testing. In February and March we will test new software that will almost be as we would like it to be for launch, we will run two long campaigns simulating normal operations after launch and the instrument teams still have their own rounds of testing of equipment and back-ups to do. My own job is to plan the two simulations campaigns. They have to be realistic, but reasonable. We know perfectly that things will go wrong in flight and have to be ready, but you can’t throw six different simultaneous crises at a team at the start of the simulations and expect them to cope. However, you have to expect them to solve some unexpected problems otherwise when things go wrong in flight they will not be ready to cope. It’s a pretty problem. You also cannot tell people what kinds of problems they can expect because if you do they won’t be taken by surprise and it will not be real training. Right now, I have a small group of co-conspirators, with whom I am discussing what to throw at the team and when. And, of course, none of this will go into the plan for the tests that I am preparing. Watch this space!

The opiniones expressed here are the personal opinions of the author and should not be identified with those of the European Space Agency in any way, shape or form.