To be a station leader

Mario. Credits: IPEV/PNRA-M. Salza

Introducing Concordia station leader Mario Salza:

What does it mean to be Station Leader? Nice question! But not easy to answer…

When I arrived in Concordia Station last November with the first airplane of the summer campaign, it was very important for me to meet and talk with the crew who had spent last winter there. It was fundamental to discover and understand what kind of trouble a winter campaign can have and try to avoid it.

Another important thing has been to work with the Station Leaders of the summer campaign and see directly on they approached their role.

Mario. Credits: IPEV/PNRA-M. Salza

In general, what is very important is to build a real team with the winterover crew. In that sense, the week we spent training at the ESA’s European Astronaut Centre in Germany was very helpful. I met each member of the crew. During the training we already started to become a team. Once we all arrived in Antarctica, we continued where we left off.

From my point of view, the Station Leader must be part of the team and know what kind of job each crewmember does. I have always been available to help any of them, for any technical or scientific troubles. In the same way, the crew has always been available to help me for my other role as Information and Communications Technology officer.

In conclusion, I am really happy and lucky to be the Leader of this team. I think the Italian and French Antarctic organization PNRA and IPEV and ESA did a really good job in selecting the crew. The crew has high-level professional skills and great characters to work in such place.

Maximum DC11!
Mario Salza

Mario. Credits: IPEV/PNRA-M. Salza