• Question: Hello Ryan. How are you? My question for you is,how long does it take to make a piece of equipment?

    Asked by jump128ear to Ryan on 11 Jun 2019.
    • Photo: Ryan Smith

      Ryan Smith answered on 11 Jun 2019:

      Hello! I am really good. Now this is an interesting question, and it is much longer than you would imagine. The actual ‘building’ part of the equipment is usually quite short, so weeks or months. The time is taken when designing it, which could take years. Then there is the testing afterwards, which again takes a really long time. It is the nature of the space industry that things take a long time to get right, and they have to work perfectly. Once you send something to space you can’t go up to repair it!

      As an example, one mission I am working on is fairly short by our departments standards, and will be launching in 2021. There are some people here working on a project called ARIEL that wont launch until 2028.

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