Paolo Ferri on working under pressure | ESA Masterclass
Understanding the laws of the universe is fundamental to flying missions in space. But one spacecraft under Paolo Ferri’s care seemed to be particularly susceptible to Murphy’s law – ‘Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong.’
In 1992, ESA’s first-ever reusable satellite, Eureca, was delivered into orbit (and later retrieved) by a NASA Space Shuttle. It spent just under a year in orbit, and presented a plethora of problems from Day 1. While it was ultimately successful, Eureca required constant care from engineering teams on ground as well as hands-on help from astronauts in orbit.
As Deputy Operations Manager for the mission, Paolo Ferri explains in his fourth masterclass how this intense period acted as a ‘school’ for him, as he and his team were put under immense pressure by this orbiting ‘box of surprises’ constantly on the edge of catastrophe and mission failure.
With 36 years’ of experience at ESA, Paolo Ferri is responsible for mission operations, and he has played a leading role in ensuring the success of missions like Eureca, ESA’s first-ever reusable satellite; Cluster, one of the longest-flying science missions; Venus Express, Europe’s first exploration of Earth’s ‘evil twin’; and Rosetta, humanity’s first landing on a comet.
In five episodes of ‘Leadership at Mission Control’, Paolo takes us through major events in his career at ESA, covering cornerstone missions, first attempts, overcoming technical challenges, building diverse teams, working under pressure and solving the unexpected problems that are part of any space endeavour.
New episodes from Paolo’s Masterclass will be released each Sunday, stay tuned!
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After all the stories from Paolo about "At Eureca's times…" still there was something new to discover in this video 🙂
I want to b part of the ESA
Certainly an environment of 'working under pressure' when you're instructed to forge and falsify 20 years of ESA Space hardware testing namely ESA Spec. 3402 'Contact Engagement and Separation Forces' to name but one.
Videos👍Paolo Ferri 👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏🌚🌞😉
Hi
EURECA …que missão sob pressão, ficou em silêncio!! Deve ser muito frustrante para os responsáveis que aconteçam estes contratempos!! Tudo estudado ao milimetro com muito rigor e todo o trabalho complexo e exaustivo desenvolvido pode terminar com todas as ambições num ápice!! No entanto, houve de novo a possibilidade de transmitir e factores envolvidos: o remetente EURECA, o astronauta, a telemetria(os fios de transmissão e os cientistas na base que recebem os sinais e descodificar as mensagens chegando ao destinatário!! A missão EURECA funcionou e o conhecimento de novas máquinas e continuar a explorar!!