biomass

We are pleased to propose a new format for some post, in the form of a transcript of an interview … to enjoy and get inspired …

Two of the European Astrotech Engineering team (Oliver Graham and Ben Patan Rutterford) have taken time out of their busy schedule to have a short discussion with the Airbus Biomass Project Manager (Chris Lloyd) in Kourou.

The Biomass Satellite is the Seventh Earth Explorer for European Space Agency.   The overall objective of the mission is to reduce the uncertainty in the worldwide spatial distribution and dynamics of forest biomass in order to improve current assessments and future projections of the global carbon cycle. This objective will be achieved by implementation of a P-band SAR mission, providing global maps of forest biomass stocks, forest disturbance and growth

European Astrotech Ltd provides high quality propellant based chemical and mechanical services in all areas of industry. Their expansive experience in the chemistry of all storable liquid propellants and the engineering of spacecraft propulsion subsystems enables them to support clients in all aspects of propulsion chemistry and engineering; from analysis, processing of components and assemblies; through to subsystem qualification testing and launch site services.

Chris

First a big thank you for supporting this conversation, I am interested to find out about how you have ended up here in Kourou fuelling the Biomass Satellite. I thought we could start by going back in time.  How and why you got involved in engineering and STEM topics.  What inspired you into the space Industry?

Ben

Well, it has been kind of something that’s been a constant in my life. It’s something I’ve always found interesting, but I think especially going through secondary school and university, realizing that even in a small way, we’re contributing to something better and improving the world in our own, small way. And it really encouraged me, and especially the early years of university, I definitely realized I wanted to get into the space industry. New space was ramping up,  it fuelled me and made me want to be a part of it

Chris

What about you Olly? 

Olly

Well I’m a bit younger. In my formative years, we’ve had the new space age and all these cool space developments going on. And I think that kind of inspired me, Oh, I could do this. And I like space, and it’s looking at ways, how can I get into this? I like being hands on, I am very practical so I think engineering is the way to go. And I think I found my niche within the sector and fuelling.

Chris

So really from growing up, it was loads of Lego, taking stuff apart, spending the whole day taking the bike apart just because you could? 

Ben

Yes for sure, I was obsessed with planes. And I knew from a young age I wanted to get into either aeronautical or aerospace.  It was quite funny the way I’d kind of gone through a different path, because I did a chemistry at university, I was looking to find a way to use these translatable skills,  just to transition them, towards space, this role is a very niche, and it so far it has worked out perfectly. 

Chris

And same for you. Olly? , so your parents were in despair as you were taking stuff apart on the living room floor?

Olly 

It’s very much I like to tinker with things and play, kind of, take my bike apart, build a new bike that’s cooler, that kind of thing. And very much, if there was a DIY problem which needs to be solved, I would play around with it and play with spanners, fix the tap, simple stuff like that. But it builds up, and those skills are translatable to what you do in the space Industry.  I think we all start with just kind of tinkering and playing and trying to figure out how things work, and then, it becomes an obsession, that’s what you end up doing for the rest of your life. So this is never a bad thing.

Chris

So for the pair of you then, it has started with little things and building up to the pathway to now.   You have just fuelled the European Space Agency’s Earth Explorer Seven that has got to be amazing?

Ben

It’s definitely one of my highlights of my life. It’s it was very special finding this job, knowing that if, if you can demonstrate you have these transitional skills, you can still work in the industry. And I think that was really, really exciting.

Olly

For me, I found my way into the industry for an internship. I did a three months internship, which gave me an insight into the whole umbrella of propulsion responsibilities and roles. And during that internship, I prepared the launch campaign FGSE for the Galileo launch. I was offered a full-time job in the space industry.  That was a decision that took five minutes to decide what I wanted to do. So now, at the moment, I learn all the hands on and the practical skills of my day-to-day job, but I also do part time study with the Open University to study engineering, so I get all the theoretical side as well. So, I’ve got basically the best of both worlds, and I can’t really complain to getting here where I am today. This is now my 10th satellite I have fuelled. 

Chris

Over what time frame?

Olly

That’s in just over two years. So quite a lot. And my seventh launch campaign. So, this is quite a learning curve. There’s a lot to learn. For me, is it’s always learning a lot of things, and I’m always picking up different things. They say every day you learn something different. But it really is like that for me…

Chris

You’ve been with us in Kourou for two weeks almost. And you have fuelled the spacecraft, hydrazine is not the nicest chemical on the planet.  But what’s it actually like? What does it feel like to do it?

Ben

Well especially with my chemistry background and at our work, we also do a lot of analysis, so I had quite a lot of time getting experience handling the propellant. So kind of having a good knowledge of its faults, in its quirks, kind of gives you a good idea of how to approach it all, but actually coming here, and fuelling and getting into SCAPE, it kind of puts it all into perspective. It’s a very exciting feeling,

Chris

Exciting or scary? 

Olly

Daunting!

Chris

Well, you can’t say it’s daunting. You’ve done 10!

Olly

I mean, from my perspective, when we are back at base. We get a lot of experience with handling the propellants and stuff. So when we come to launch site, actually, we handle a vast quantity of propellant, but it’s almost in a safer way, because there’s so much safety procedures and so many things in place. If you’re in a fume hood, you’re kind of pouring the liquids, or you’re doing gas chromatogram injections.  Whereas here it’s all a very closed system, and it’s all very safe, it’s still fuelling, is still a bit of a tense thing, until you’ve got the propellant flowing and you can see there’s no leaks, and you can verify that everything’s okay, then you can relax. But up to that point, it’s like, Have I missed something. I think it gets easier with time, and you become more confident in the setup processes. You’ve done the procedures that were in place, and I think, having that propellant handling experience also means you’re better prepared in case anything goes wrong.

Ben

Exactly. You know what to do. There’s no hesitation, you know. Okay, I need to do this to solve the issue, which definitely helps.

Chris

What about being in those great big protective suits?  It must be very weird.?

Olly

It’s a weird feeling, because when you enter the fuelling hall on fuelling day, it’s just you and your work colleague, and a culmination of years of people’s work has come to this point. This makes the point of no return. You’ve got a lot of people, you know, watching you in the control room, waiting to hear it’s been successfully fuelled. Once you start flowing the propellant into spacecraft, its imminently launching only a few weeks left on the ground, and I think standing back sometimes, and even fuelling Biomass. I stood there and I was like, this is very cool, but also it’s a surreal experience that you’re the only two people in the room. It’s all silent, and you’re just standing there fuelling it.

Chris

So what do you do the night before fuelling?   it’s early, to bed with a hot chocolate? usually, quite an early start.

Ben

Don’t eat anything too harsh on your stomach!

Chris

Especially in unusual countries, so come a few days early, get yourself acclimatized.?

Olly

It’s quite difficult getting up early, because naturally you start the campaign. You’re getting up early because of the time difference, but then you adjust your sleep schedules by time it’s fuelling you have to then go back but I think caffeine and an early night’s sleep is all we need.

Chris

You talked a little bit about the support you’ve had from EAL and prior to that through school, because you’re on a pathway, you’re doing your GCSEs, you do your A levels or whatever. But, outside of that what support have you received? 

Ben

The way I found this job was through space careers.co.uk, and they have lots of resources trying to raise awareness of the different areas of the space industry too. So I wouldn’t have been here without that website, actually, because this job is so niche that it’s quite hard to advertise something like that. 

Olly

I think very much for me, the internship helped break me into the sector, but it was also kind of my desire to learn more about the sector and ask questions constantly and learn new things, which I think inspired me to learn more and more. And I think by the end of it, they were like, actually, we’ve got someone here who’s really interested, and they don’t necessarily have the skills, but we can train them up to have the skills through Open University and through hands on practical work, and then the rest of it will follow. So that’s, kind of how European Astrotech helped me. But also the Open University with learning all the hands on theoretical, basically everything I need to know for the job.

Chris

What about kind of those professional bodies as well? 

Ben

Well, I think for me, it’s a bit different, because, you know, chemistry, like pure chemistry, isn’t that involved in the space industry? Well, at least at this point. So I wasn’t too involved in those bodies. But I’m sure engineering is more relevant, but it could be a point to try and get other people from other STEM backgrounds.

Olly

I mean, I think for me, at the moment, my main focus on getting the degree, but after that, I might look at doing kind of a Masters, which is far more focused on kind of the sector we’re in, and propulsion umbrella, because I’d like to move into more, potentially propulsion AIT, or something kind of in that sector. So I think that’s what I’m going to look to do in the future, is expand my knowledge, but also look at other avenues within space sector.

Chris

You talked a little bit about new space and all the media on SpaceX, Amazon etc so some massive opportunities and the importance of Earth Explorer satellites. Here we are today with, Earth Explorer Seven, developed to take care and monitor the forest. And obviously we’re going to launch it from the edge of the Amazon forest, which is, really quite a nice story.  But what about for you then, in terms of using these skills for kind of things like sustainable fuels is that something on your horizon at the moment,

Ben

What I love about the space industry, is that both like directly and indirectly, it kind of improves so many other things on the planet, especially with climate change. And this mission is really a really good example of how the UK is contributing to tackling climate change, and sustainable fuels is a great area we can explore.

Olly

Well the advantage to hydrazine it’s ISP is very high. It’s unmatched from what green propellants can do. But I think green propellants also have a good future within the space industry. But I think we’re kind of on the edge of branching into more green propellants and looking at these options. I think that’s what makes new space so good, because you can have all of these start-ups and smaller projects that can find these new propellants, because hydrazine is all known, and you kind of have to explore what else is possible.  I think it’s easy for start-ups to build satellite. But it’s an entry barrier for them where they don’t know how to handle toxic propellants. They can use water or other green propellants that aren’t going to harm them. They don’t have to wear hazardous suits and have all these safety precautions. And I think it lowers the entry bar into kind of satellites and launching things into space, which I think is really cool. It’s probably quite good for student teams and people who want to build stuff on a small budget, and stay safe at the same time.

Chris

So obviously, you’ve had quite an intense couple of weeks. Two and a half weeks here with us. You, fly home in a couple of days So what’s the downtime then, you know, it’s quite a stressful environment. Obviously, you’ve been away from home for a few weeks as well. So what’s the downtime for you two? 

Ben

Probably just spending more time with the family kind of decompressing. There’s still quite a lot of work back at home. So it’s actually been good to get the decontamination done.

Olly

This was actually slightly less stressful this campaign, I think when we get home, it’ll be nice to get home see the family, that kind of thing. But the same time, we’ve got a lot to do. We have to think ahead for the rest of the year. We’ve got other campaigns coming up in two months time.  So we’ve got start preparing the equipment for that, most of which is already ready, but we’ve got finalize it and ship it, and then we’re going to have the Biomass stuff that’s coming back to turn around for the next campaign. So we’re looking at, I think, four or five campaigns for the rest of the year. So there’s a lot to do. We’ve got subsystem testing, analysis, propellants and surface treatment of propulsion systems.

Chris 

So what are you doing launch day, 29th of April. It will be 10:15 for you in the UK?

Ben

Watch the Launch on a big screen

Olly

 We’ll be gathered around the screen in the office.

Chris

Thank you for taking the time to talk me through your experience here in Kourou and giving us some insight into what really happens during the fuelling.  Enjoy the launch!