|
Cristian Bank, project
manager for manned flight.
Cristian Bank works in Germany for EADS
Astrium*. In the spring of 2008 the presentation
of a capsule derived from the ATV and destined
to transport people put him in the glare
of publicity. Meeting with a man with many
interests and valuable advice to offer.
IOONOS: You work
for Astrium in Germany. What is your exact
title ?
Cristian Bank : I am Head of "Crew
Transportation" which is a department
within the BU "Orbital & Reusable
Systems". Crew Transport includes the
specification and / or development of all
means and measures to transport people to
space and back to Earth. For example, concerning
the ATV Evolution programme, Ariane 5 and
its launch pad as potential launcher is
a given item, but the required adaptations
for manned flights shall be specified by
our team. The vehicle itself, i.e. the propulsion
unit and the capsule, will be specified,
developed, and integrated by us.
IOONOS : What is
your career path and what led you to do
this job ?
Mr Cristian Bank : I have first studied
space engineering and later business &
labour law on top. Currently I study economics
in parallel to my professional life. Dedication
to, and interest in, all facets of this
task - engineering, organisational, political,
and economical aspects – led me to
do this job.
IOONOS : Could
you describe the different facets you are
talking about ? What does your job entail
?
Mr Cristian Bank : First the communication
of our company's priorities towards the
customer and the acquisition of the related
work share in the upcoming study and development
contracts. Then, together with procurement
and contracts, the negotiation within the
industrial team. And finally, the organisation
of workflow and teams, dissemination of
information, setting of priorities and goals.
My job ends when our customer accepts our
deliveries of the contractual obligations,
delivered in time and within budget.
IOONOS : To accomplish
all that, who do you work with ?
Mr Cristian Bank : Fellow engineers, both
specialists and system engineers, subcontractors,
political decision makers, astronauts, and
not to forget all company internal functions.
IOONOS : What are
the main interest of your job? And What
are the skills and qualities needed ?
Mr Cristian Bank : The complexity of all
the facets of the task - engineering, organisational,
political, and economical aspect- constitutes
the main interest of a job which requires
endurance, ability to motivate yourself
as well as a good "feeling" for
the balance between risks and opportunities
in the various aspects of it, and for the
tension between all the internal and external
priorities.
IOONOS : What are
the constraints ?
Mr Cristian Bank : Most of the constraints
are "homemade". As said Wernher
von Braun 1*: "To get to the Moon,
we had to fight two things: gravity and
the paperwork. We easily conquered gravity."
IOONOS : Would
you recommend this profession to young people,
if so, what advice would you give them ?
Mr Cristian Bank : If you are career oriented,
you better look for some other job, but
if you don't mind to wait and continuously
learn some 20 years before your dream may
(!) come true, why not. There are less interesting
ways to waste your professional life.
IOONOS : Does the
space make you dream ?
Mr Cristian Bank : Of course. Since I learned
to read with Apollo picture books in the
early 70ies, there was not a day in my life
I did not think about spaceflight, the solar
system, and the limits and aspirations of
humans in space. So my job is the next best
thing to being an astronaut.
1* Dr. Wernher von Braun (March 23, 1912
– June 16, 1977), a German rocket
physicist and astronautics engineer, became
one of the leading figures in the development
of rocket technology in Germany and the
United States. Wernher von Braun is sometimes
said to be the preeminent rocket scientist
of the 20th century.
|
