SRATOS team console. Credits: ESA–J. Harrod CC BY SA IGO 3.0

SRATOS team console. Credits: ESA–J. Harrod CC BY SA IGO 3.0

Many people support a mission in space. We invite you to meet the teams that are keeping Andreas Mogensen and the International Space Station safe and running experiments, in their own words:

What is your team name?
STRATOS

What does your team name stand for?
Columbus Systems, Data Management and Communications Engineer (don’t ask us where the STRATOS comes from…)

What do you do?
We take care of all the systems that keep Columbus working and performing all the experiments on a day-to-day basis.

STRATOS from left: Laura Zanardini, as STRATOS on console; Andrew Caldwell, as iriss Lead STRATOS and Bruno Blasi as iriss backup STRATOS.

STRATOS from left: Laura Zanardini, as STRATOS on console; Andrew Caldwell, as iriss Lead STRATOS and Bruno Blasi as iriss backup STRATOS. Credits: ESA–J. Harrod CC BY SA IGO 3.0

Describe your typical work day:
The best part of this job is the variety of activities we do. On any given day we might start by activating a large experiment rack for the day’s activities, then perform maintenance on our water pumps and afterwards troubleshoot and recover from a LAN switch unexpectedly turning off… all before most people have had breakfast.

How is it working for iriss?
It’s really exciting to see the hard work and preparation for the different experiments pay off with Andreas’s activities in space. Having said that it’s also very challenging to have a crew member completely dedicated to ESA activities in Columbus for several days in a row.

What is the best part of your job?
While we support activities on console it is very exciting to prepare the systems that allow astronauts to work in Columbus and perform maintenance activities together with them: those activities where we work together are the ones that make you really feel like a key part of the International Space Station family.

Many monitors for monitoring Columbus. Credits: ESA–J. Harrod CC BY SA IGO 3.0

Many monitors for monitoring Columbus. Credits: ESA–J. Harrod CC BY SA IGO 3.0