Thursday January 22nd 2009

Today we have had one of those moments of a shear, surreal comic situation that is only possible in a centre that is a hotbed of technical brilliance. Communications are very important in a mission like ours where several centres have to be linked together on a regular basis. To improve communications we use a Videocon system, where possible, so that people can see each other and see who is talking. Often it is necessary for us to hold meetings by telephone where as many as 25 or 30 people may be listening in to the discussions, connecting from 8 or 10 different centres in several different countries. Unfortunately though, with so many participants, the situation gets almost unmanageable when we are using sound only, because it is often almost impossible to follow what is going on and it is very difficult to break into a conversation. Having a video system makes everything much easier, because it becomes so much more like having a normal conversation: you can see who you are speaking to and get the normal visual cues of a conversation.

That’s the theory, at least. We had bought an expensive video system that we can shift between meeting rooms so that we can use whichever one happens to be free, when necessary because we felt that it was necessary to be able to communicate efficiently. The alternative is to waste a lot of time and thousands of Euros on unnecessary travel to meetings around Europe. Last week we tried out or new video system and eventually had to abandon efforts because our colleagues complained that they could barely hear us and that there was a constant noise like a fan. “There isn’t any fan here” we said, but rapidly had to decant to a different video facility, because it became obvious that we could not continue if no one could hear us.

After various unsuccessful tests and trials, we called in the experts. The technician’s diagnosis left us in stitches of rueful laughter. It seems that the apparatus had not been set up correctly: the internal microphone was just that… it was shut away inside a cabinet inside the machine, right alongside its ventilator fan. Duuuuuhhhhhhhhhh!!!! We now have two external microphones on long cables.

As a footnote to yesterday, we are acutely aware of that any significant problem with the next Ariane launch on February 12^th would, most likely, scrub our launch or, at very least delay it. Ariane 5 has a very impressive launch record, so we know that nothing should go wrong but, one of my colleagues here has just pointed out that, on the last three missions that he has worked for, the launch before his failed. If anything goes wrong on February 12^th, we will know who the jinx is…