• Question: his this job hard

    Asked by 807spcc25 to Camilla, Dan, Katie, Mike, Rhys on 15 Jun 2015. This question was also asked by Nishaa20.
    • Photo: Katie Sparks

      Katie Sparks answered on 15 Jun 2015:

      That’s a tough question to answer! There are lots of different things that go into designing and making spacecraft, so that is certainly hard, but it is done by a team of people, everyone working on their part. I guess it is similar to learning long division at school, it’s hard until you have learnt it and had some practice, which make it easier, although there’ll always be one that takes more thinking than others! Also, you can always ask questions – that helps a lot.

    • Photo: Camilla Weiss

      Camilla Weiss answered on 15 Jun 2015:

      It can be technically hard and also quite hard work. Sometimes I write bits of code to make the spacecraft do something like talk to another bit of the satellite or open a solar array. The code can be quite complicated and it can be hard to understand at first but there are always lots of people who have more experience or are just way cleverer than me who are always happy to help you out. Within our team we always talk about problems we’re having because there’s usually someone who’ll have a suggestion or know the answer.

      It can also be very hard work sometimes – we work to very tight schedules and this can sometimes mean very long days as you get closer to launch, especially if something’s not gone quite as you’d expect. It’s worth it though and usually it’s the whole team pulling together to get the satellite ready which gives you a really good sense of team work.

    • Photo: Rhys Archer

      Rhys Archer answered on 15 Jun 2015:

      I’m in a slightly different place as I am studying for my PhD, which takes a lot of learning alongside experimenting and doing research. I would say doing a PhD is difficult, but at the same the most rewarding thing I have done so far. What is fantastic is that you are doing your own project, and you have complete ownership over that, but that also makes it hard as you have complete responsibility over your work, so if you don’t get something done, it doesn’t get done!

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