In March 2024, we celebrated Mars Day with an engaging virtual talk designed for schools, diving into the fascinating world of space with our expert STEM Ambassadors.
Meet Jack Dove, an Airborne Systems Design Engineer for MBDA UK, who talks about all the different careers there are available in space exploration and how their related attributes are needed to get humans to Mars. 🙂
0:00 Introduction
1:56 Jobs for Space
4:09 Britain’s Current Astronauts
5:43 The Opportunities are Limitless!
9:22 Every Job Contributes: John Harlow (1947 – 2023)
10:36 What does Jack Do?
11:12 What do Missiles and Spacecraft have in Common?
13:50 Build Your Own Mars Rover
14:58 Required Qualities and Aptitudes
18:31 Christa McAuliffe (1986)
19:46 Contact us!
Want to request a STEM Ambassador? You can register online at https://www.STEM.org.uk.
If you are from the East Midlands region, check out our other social media here: https://linktr.ee/LEBCstem.
Hello everyone and listening today my name is Jack Dove I’m an Airborne systems engineer with MBDA Missile Systems and my current job is to help attach aircraft missiles to different fighter aircraft I’m going to be your host for this talk about careers in space today while I have yet had
To work on spacecraft specifically my career does relate quite strongly to the field of spacecraft engineering and I’ll be going through that as go through my talk today and you see on the title page I’ve had the chance to view quite a bit of space history like at the science museum
I see Helen Sharman’s space suit and there’s the rocket that took Tim Peake into space just over 8 years ago in the centre picture if you look just above the arrow you will see me standing right underneath the Lancaster World War II bomber at the Imperial War Museum in just outside London
Our first company offsite training event following COVID. a very good day that was and this is me in the centre with the team I was based with for my third graduate engineer placement at MBDA. the mechanical systems placement surrounded by the whole team I must say it was the most
Challenging and but the most fulfilling place of all my placements at at the company in the graduate program before I came on to Airborne systems. again a bit more about who I am and what
My dream is so of course my dream is to be like Tim Peake and go into space one day it’s a dream I’ve had since I was nine since before the time of YouTube it was but that’s a story for another
Time. currently I’m working on Airborne systems helping to attach missiles to fighter jets for different countries but I can’t go into too many details about that unfortunately. it was no easy task getting into engineering it took me 2 years and up to a dozen applications and interviews
Before I was finally accepted before that had I studied engineering up to a master’s level with the Open University, the self study route. so they sent me all the course material and I had to read
It and then do exam questions and assignments I did based on what I’ve been taught but again this is just the first step the company I’m working at MBDA is on my dream to get into space one day you
Don’t only need the academic knowledge, you need the interpersonal skills and experience the dream wanting to be like Tim Peake is only the starting point and these are just the stepping stones. but of course there are so many different careers there are for space Not Just engineering and no
Path is ever going to be the same as the other I can never follow the same path as people like Tim Peake did and I’ll go in more about that as we go along. so the obvious route would be science it
Would ’cause if you want to go to Mars you have to know a lot of different skills you can never learn all of them so you have to have a team that knows all the skills necessary to one day go to
Mars and be able to survive and also be away from Earth such a long time so you could be good in chemistry, mixing chemicals together, learning about different chemical reactions. you could be good at biology that will be a very important skill to go to Mars with you need to know how to
Grow your own food if you’re good at helping your parents perhaps in an allotment or you’ve had a chance of growing vegetables in your back Garden like we do we grow our own potatoes here at home, that would be a very good skill it would to have. or there’s physics where you learn
About the different environments spacecraft go into like what radiation it is accepted to, and what temperatures it’s going to be in, and what materials you need to build a spacecraft, what are going to be the best, that will be lightweight, strong and resistant against all the
The different dangers in space radiation, micro meteoroid damage all that sort of stuff. and of course there’s engineering my path is systems engineering which is about basically bringing different elements different bits and pieces together and getting them all to work in unison to
Perform a desired function or requirement. another aspect of engineering like mechanical which I went into that’s all about making the different bits and pieces, the actual paths nuts and bolts and screws and bits which make up a spacecraft but also civil engineering which is used to build
Houses and that, that could be useful for going to the moon or to Mars they’re going to have to know how to build their own habitats to withstand the environment on another planet so there’s all different possibilities out there in engineering. but also you don’t only have to grow your own food
In space you have to know how to be able to count on each other to keep safe and well you could be a doctor or a nurse, know what to do if you break a bone on Mars, 50 million miles away from the
Nearest hospital, you got to know how to do that that’s going to be a very important skill to have there aren’t too many doctors there are plenty of Engineers and pilots and scientists but not enough doctors at the moment. or you could be a pilot as you see Tim Peake here he’s flying
Guest with the Red Arrows but again that’s a very important skill most astronauts do need, you need to know have some basic skills to flying you do but it’s not necessarily mandatory, but you will be required to learn it to go into space so but there’s plenty more different
Careers out there and I’ll be going a bit more through that as we go along. and now here is our current astronaut quartet of people who are training to fly into space right now they are in
One has already been up we all know Tim Peake of course and these are the newest astronauts that be recruited from Britain for by the European Space Agency we’ve got Rosemary Coogan and there’s Meganne Christian and John McFall. John is our first in his own right he’s the first person to
Be selected to go into who’s lost a limb, he lost his right leg in a motorcycle accident when he was 19 years old and he’s competed in the Chinese Paralympics in 2008 so he’s help making it possible for more people to go into space and make space travel more accessible and there’s something
Else these four individuals you see here they could be the crew for the UK’s very first all UK space mission which is due to take place sometime next year. at the moment, it looks like these four
Will be the ones who will fly it but remember as I said before, no career path is the same none of these four individuals have come from the same background Tim Peake is a soldier and helicopter pilot from the British Army Rosemary Coogan is an astrophysicist who studies the formation and life
Cycle of galaxies, Meganne Christian is a material scientist she researches how to create new materials that that fulfill certain purposes and she’s also had a chance to explore Planet a bit, she spent a year living in Antarctica at the South Pole and John McFall is a doctor and orthopaedic
Surgeon. all of these careers as you’ve seen on the previous slides these are all you mix all these four individuals together you have an impressive crew of individuals who could I feel handle just about any situation that could arise on their flight although they’re only going to the
Space Station they don’t need to know everything like growing your own food and that but you’ve got pretty good team lined up for such an historic Mission. I hope they will be the ones who will fly that mission and I’ll be watching it. but the opportunities are Limitless for careers in
Space not just the most obvious as becoming an astronaut, it’s also about making these missions happen that creates so many opportunities and as our motto at the British interplanetary society which I myself am a member of, anything from your imagination can become reality so from imagination
To reality, astronauts require training they do they have to know how to do space walks and how to basically if they want to go to another planet they have to know about different things like geology and so people have to teach them how to do these important things they have to know
How to work in space how to do space walks, handle different equipment like carry all the stuff up on you needed for a climb of Mount Everest as you see in this zero gravity flight on the third picture I
Brought up and you also have to know how to scuba dive I well so you could be a scuba instructor like show them how to work the equipment properly as you see again there’s Tim Peake when he was
Beneathe- 12 days beneathe the Atlantic and that’s him in the picture here in Alaska and here he is again as you see the instructors and safety divers as are supporting him during his space walk training could also be a good Explorer. learning how to work together and work in space
Not only requires you to work as a team but you have to live and trust each other live together and work together at the same time and that’s what training under the Atlantic does for you and you also could explore caves. but there’s also the many simulators Which astronauts use
To train [for] Tasks in space like learning how to work the robot arm it requires people to program these virtual reality simulators with the software and that is no mean task it’s like learning a new language which is something I am not keen on, learning a new language would actually be easier
Than the writing the software. but also if you’re going to be away from space for a long period of time you need to have good food and these are some of the examples of astronaut food that astronauts
Eat maybe you could be a good cook and figure out a way to make lasagna in space. they can make pizza in space now but lasagna is kind of favorite food, it is it would be my favorite food for my
First meal back on Earth after a long duration flight. but again also like John McFall you need to know what to do if you get sick or injured in space so you need to have some basic knowledge of
First aid and surgery, and you have to be able to grow food here’s some Peggy Whitson who spent a year in space with some space lettuce that she produced on one of her previous missions. but
Space is not just about reaching for the stars and learning about more of the universe we live in, what you do in your career can help Inspire others to do well and also give people hope like two years ago there was the Inspiration4 Mission which raised money for the St Jude Children’s
Cancer Hospital in the [united] states, they took some space art with them that had been drawn by patients of that hospital and as you see here this art project that was produced in in the states as
Well this space suit is a collection of collages that were painted by cancer patients they were and brought together into this rather inspirational display it does so it’s not just about going into space and the people who make it possible for people like Tim Peake to reach for space, bring
All together and design and build the spacecraft that go to other planets or will take us back to the moon, it’s about providing inspiration to others like I’m doing today for all of you to reach for your goals and your dreams. also as well it’s the people who make the missions possible who
Look after the astronauts in space like at this Mission Control Center in Europe, they monitor the performance and operations of each spacecraft to make sure it works correctly and so they have to know what to do if an emergency comes up and be able to make the right call,
The right decision of what needs to be done next. but again also there is a few other possibilities like I said before if this is Andreas Mogensen who’s up on the space station right now he’ll be
Coming home in a couple of weeks, he’s using the very first food processor in space to make some delicious chocolate pudding for the astronauts on the space station so again if you could think of
A meal that astronauts could eat in space but they can’t at the moment if you could think of a way to cook it that’s a major achievement if in fact Tim Peake had to have people come up with how to make
Him a bacon sandwich in space but of course you can come from any background like Helen Sharman, you see here before she was selected to go into space as Britain’s first astronaut in 1991 she worked as a chemist researcher for the Mars chocolate bar company so you can come from
Any background if you can work hard and put in the effort for to never give up and show perseverance and dedication you can become whatever you want to be, but again and to illustrate a bit further
As what I’ve been trying to point out before it’s the dreams of so many who wish to go into space but don’t always make it that get us to space as I’m sure a lot of those people who train the astronauts wish they could go into space like Tim Peake’s Space Walk instructor
Would like to go into space they don’t always get lucky, the astronauts do but it’s their hard work and dedication that make it possible for us to get there this is John Harlow my grandad he was president of the British interplanetary Society twice in his lifetime but sadly passed away last
November, he wished to One Day become a pilot when he was younger but never made it because of a inner ear problem he worked for Aero Jet Systems he did but he had the chance to go up to the
Actual hatch of the space shuttle on the Launchpad in 1985 and he was also posted in Iraq during 2003 and 2004 he was with the UN Special Convoy out there in Iraq, it’s his experiences that he shared with me throughout my higher education and progressing into professional engineering
That gave me motivation and helped keep me going in difficult times and really showing that he had the same experiences I had in life and he was not from as an as privileged background as me
Didn’t have some of the things I had but he still achieved greatness was on the Queen’s New Year’s honors list and worked on so many countless space projects in his career, so it just shows the opportunities are there not just for what you personally achieve but what you can do for others.
So here’s a bit more about my current job as I said before I work on missiles that are used to destroy enemy targets it does relate more to space than people might think and I’m going to give you
A chance to see that you see here a missile being fired from a fighter jet I won’t say specifically which one it is of course and you see here an interplanetary space probe Galileo that was in
Fact launched on the space shuttle in 1989. these two engineering products as we call them in the business or Rockets or whatever you call them they actually have more similarities than you think so I’m going to give anyone watching here a chance to think of some similarities between spacecraft
And missiles so what do they have in common? *** pause the presentation or if you have a now you can do so and just write down a few ideas and then restart when you’re ready – put your thinking
Caps on! *** here’s some of my comparisons: they both have engines you can use rocket propulsion although missiles don’t necessarily always use rocket propulsion they use miniature versions of the same engine’s craft do; they have on-board computers which essentially tell them what they
Need to do; they have sensors or cameras on board to enable them to see where they’re going although you probably couldn’t tell that from the missiles of course it’s not just cameras it’s infrared like you see on police helicopters; they need power supply they have batteries like the
Galileo Probe had a nuclear reactor on board or but satellites do have batteries or solar panels but missiles have batteries themselves; they both carry payloads to an intended destination, a missile carries explosives to destroy an enemy Target and space Probes can carry Landers to be
Deployed and land on a planet surface or orbit a planet; they are essentially made from the same sort of materials which are lightweight strong and of course cost effective like aluminium and some of the stronger parts are made from steel or titanium alloy or composite materials like
Aircraft; and they fly fast, of course some missiles fly faster than the speed of sound especially if they have rocket engines and spacecraft they have to travel faster than the Earth’s rotation more than 20,000 mph to escape Earth’s gravity and 175,000 mph to stay in orbit;
They cost a lot of money of course just to build but also to maintain and also design and produce; and they have to be compact because a missile can only carry so much equipment and so much explosive
If it intends to destroy the intended target it can only carry so many different sensors or so to determine whether it hits its intended target correctly and a spacecraft has to be lightweight in order to be able to be launched into space, [it] can’t have an infinite amount of weight or
Else the rocket will never get it off the ground and so it can only carry so much and it has to fit on the rocket as well like you could see Galileo had to fit inside the Payload Bay of the shuttle;
And they’re made from thousands of different pieces down to the smallest nut or screw the pieces are not made in one country my company MBDA we operate in Spain, the UK, France, Italy, Germany and Galileo was a culmination of both the United States and Europe in order to be built- so
Europe would build the censors for Galileo and America would build the spacecraft structure itself; and they also follow the key rules for Designing: “purpose, cost, weight and size” which I’ve Illustrated as previously they have to serve the purpose they’re intended for, they have
To be built to a set cost and they have to be of a specified weight and of a correct size keep those in mind for any product that’s made including the simplest thing like even your desk or table; and
They’re both carried missiles are as you saw the missile was carried to its intended firing Point by a jet and the spacecraft is lifted into orbit by a rocket similar to the one Tim Peake flew on.
Here’s how you could build your own Mars Rover just like this one Europe is going to be sending to Mars in about 5 to 4 years from now in 2028 this is the Rosalind Franklin XL Mars Rover which
Was built right in Stevenage just down the road from where I work and you can even build all the Rover like this as you see here this is a Rover we built with a Lego kit which I produced for a team
Project in the Open University basically this is a Mars Rover the Rover is following this black tape track around the board using this sensor attached to an arm fitted on body of the Rover itself and this programming unit was programmed to enable the sensor to be able to read it and tell the
Rover where to move so if you get your hands on a Lego kit like this you could build build your own Rover you could make it basically follow the same principles you could program it to follow a
Set route you could get it to even pull a party popper like we did in a training course at MBDA they could give you a go and it can also give you an example like how you could work in a team you
Could decide what you want the Rover to do how you want it to do it which instruments you want to use it’s like set prices, different instruments, and set an agreed budget that’s how probe like this
Is made a need arises, a team is formed, you agree how the best way to do it and you choose the best options with the money and resources you have available. here’s a bit more about how
The qualities and aptitudes which I think would be useful for if you wish to pursue a career in space in your lifetime or one day go into space there are course too many of them for me to describe but
Here are some of my personal qualities: a good eye for detail you don’t want to make mistakes when you’re building a spacecraft they’re very expensive and they can have people’s lives at stake on the end of them like especially if you want to fly the same spacecraft Tim Peake did;
And I have a desire to finish whatever I start I’ve never been on a placement in my graduate engineering program without finishing what I started; also you need to have a keen sense of adventure like want to see the world; and perhaps try new challenges along the way have
An open mind as well ’cause again the people who build these space probes and Rockets come from not just one nation they come from many different backgrounds and beliefs so be willing to accept the differences of others I myself have a specific difference I have Asperger syndrome on the
Autistic Spectrum so I can interact with people a little differently sometimes or have had trouble communicating things clearly but I’ve demonstrated the individual I am and and how well I can do things and what I’ve achieved in my life which is not not something a lot of people would think
You’d be capable of; again, failure can be quite a disappointment as I said before it took me about eight tries to get an interviews before I was finally accepted into a job in over 2 years but
Take failure as a chance to learn how you can do better next time you can always learn from failure no matter how upsetting it is it can always make you a better person and better qualified for next
Time; and have again a curiosity about the world around you be willing to see new places and learn about new cultures and things like that; and also be willing to help give your time for others supporting others in the workplace again is a very important quality to have and just like my
Grandad gave me all the support and motivation and before he passed away that helped get me to where I am and helped me realise where I really want to be at the moment and helped me come up with a
Plan to go forward to go into space one day or at least give me the chance to be ready for the next time ESA recruits astronauts which will hopefully be around the next decade; and also be willing to
Work hard at what you do again that’s something everyone should have; and take on challenges even if you again feel not sure they’re right for you just taking what you learn from them like when I
Had to go at trying to jet ski I realise it is no mean task to hold on to the bar which you hold on to when you’re towed along about more than four times it was pulled right out of my hand before
I finally made it; and here’s a bit more about what I do this is me attempting to carve a pumpkin underwater ’cause I’m a qualified scuba diver, a sports diver unfortunately I did not have safety Tethers or foot restraints like Tim Peake did on his space walk so carving a pumpkin underwater is
No mean feet and also they’re very buoyant they float; and here I am in Paris two years ago on a company training event giving time to help others I sometimes helped to give out food to the homeless people have you ever wondered what happens to all the cakes and sandwiches left over
From bakeries like Greggs; and I’ve had to go at some of the skills at astronauts do besides scuba diving I’ve had a go at flying gliders it’s no less noisy without an engine than it is with
One it’s the sound of the air moving over the canopy that unfortunately makes it so noisy and that took me quite a few attempts to stay in the air longer than a few minutes on a winch launch
When you pulled from 0 to 60 in about 5 seconds but it again it helps you to learn and the skills you need like patience a steady hand and hand eye coordination things like that and it’s also
A great way to be able to build trust in people because again with my autism I find it a bit tricky sometimes to connect with people outside of my interests so having Common Ground can really help to develop these interpersonal skills ’cause if you’re a scuba diver or a glider pilot
You have to be able to trust the person you’re with you have to know how to be safe not just for your sake but for theirs as well if you get into trouble you need to know how to get out of trouble
And help your buddy keep out of trouble as well be able to work with each other towards a common goal when like if you’re serving food to the homeless ’cause people will grab and you have to make sure
People get their fair share so ground is a good way to build interpersonal relationships and also I wish to share a message from one special teacher Christa McAuliffe from the space shuttle Challenger Mission this was her motto but I’ll let you hear her words for yourself: “and this is
Something I really want to do and just to try and I’m hoping that everybody out there who decides to go for the journalist in Space, the poet in space or whatever the other categories are is is that to just push yourself to get through that application because you’re not in the game unless
You get that application mailed off so I’m hoping that um know there’s going to be probably more people um down the road who are going to apply for this and when you think of the future um there’s
Going to be people flying in space and it’s going to be those kids that are in our class again this is something I really want to do…” yeah so again those were her words before she flew in 1986 and
They are clearly the words I needed to hear. you will never know how far you can go unless you try, I tried applying for the European Space Agency astronaut program in 2021 but I didn’t make
It to the interview stage but I was not among the first 20% who were eliminated who did not have the proper qualifications so even making it through that far I was among the 80% of applicants who had the right qualities is a major sense of achievement for me personally and I’m even more
Ready than last time. I have experience, I just need more experience and be able to build a case that I’m the person you want to go to the space station with. so thank you very much for your
Time but again the opportunities are Limitless and if you can imagine it it can become reality!