Daniele Marocco of COSMO. 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?
COSMO
Daniele Marocco of COSMO. Credits: ESA–J. Harrod CC BY SA IGO 3.0
What does your team name stand for?
Columbus Stowage and Maintenance Officer
What do you do?
We are responsible for Columbus systems maintenance and inventory management. We provide real-time mission support to the astronauts. COSMO is responsible for all aspects of monitoring, planning/re-planning and anomaly resolution for the structures and mechanical systems, as well as other equipment used for maintenance, such as hand tools, diagnostic equipment and repair kits.
Need a tool in Columbus? COSMO knows where it is!. Credits: ESA/NASA
What does your work typical day look like?
We work during the so called COSMO “Purple shift” which is basically framed around the crew wake time. We usually support them from Turin control centre in the ALTEC facility for normal OPS and we move to the Columbus Control Centre when dealing with critical operations that may require more interaction and coordination with the Flight Control Team. The routine console work consists of planning review and operational product finalisation. As we are responsible for the Columbus Inventory Management System we provide the astronauts with stowage locations for items and tools they need. During maintenance activities we are always there to answer any questions.
How is working for iriss?
iriss is a daily challenge. Time flies while you run a fully packed timeline of science and you find yourself at the end of the day and still do not believe that all this really happened.
Daniele Marocco of COSMO. Credits: ESA–J. Harrod CC BY SA IGO 3.0
What is the best part of your job?
If you have ever seen the movie Apollo XIII, you can imagine how the Apollo Mission Operations Team may have felt when, with a little of engineering and duct tape, they were able to fit a square peg in a round hole! This is not really part of our daily operation, since Columbus has a very robust design and all the activities are professionally laid out, but if the time comes we are always ready to provide our expertise and fix any issue, and this is really cool!
Anything else?
We are working ‘side-by-side’ with astronauts, who perform activities in space that you prepared on ground. They are literally flying on the Station like superman, can you imagine something more amazing? You will never get bored!
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