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Amaya Espinosa Ramos,
specialist in launcher trajectories and
performance.
Amaya Espinosa Ramos is a young, Spanish
engineer with infectious energy and enthusiasm.
She works in France for CNES, and also cooperates
with both Germans and Italians. Amaya is
a true European who owes a great deal to
the Erasmus programme! She is a real space
enthusiast who dreams of flying one day.
IOONOS: Is space
a calling for you ?
Amaya Espinosa Ramos: From the age of 10
or 11 I wanted to be an astronaut. I wrote
to NASA, which answered, recommending me
to take scientific studies in order to achieve
my objective. I determined to become an
engineer, which is still my basic profession,
even if things can be expected to change
and have indeed already changed. In Spain
I completed ETSIA* at the Polytechnic University
of Madrid in 6 years. My career path and
reality then led me to what I do today,
which gives me a great deal of satisfaction.
Though I still dream of flying! (*Escuela
Técnica Superior de Ingenieros Aeronáuticos)
IOONOS: Have you
always had the sense of being a European
?
Amaya Espinosa Ramos: Since Spanish industry
is stronger in aeronautics rather than space,
I immediately set about looking to travel
for my education. Thanks to summer courses
and student exchanges between European universities,
I left for Belgium and Sweden. And then
in 2001, thanks to Erasmus, I went to Supaero
for 6 months in Toulouse (France), speaking
just Spanish and English! It was fantastic:
what good luck to meet other Europeans,
to compare our career paths, to have a great
time, but above all we learnt a huge amount.
At the end of my stay in France I visited
the International Paris Air Show at Le Bourget
and then sent in 3 CVs (curriculum vitae)
with the emphasis on “Launchers”
to companies that interested me. CNES contacted
me straight away and at the end of 2001
I started working for the French Space Agency.
IOONOS: Could you
explain to us what your work consists of
?
Amaya Espinosa Ramos: At CNES I work in
the launchers department. My profession
is determining the trajectory of launchers,
which is the path to be taken from launch
pad until going into orbit. You can always
go straight like a car. But when defining
a trajectory the objective is to optimise
the launcher’s performance to put
its load into orbit, and that’s not
so simple. We are trying to get the best
out of the launcher in terms of the objectives
to be achieved.
IOONOS: Which launchers are you working
on ?
Amaya Espinosa Ramos: I am working on missions
that will be flying in a few months, such
as Herschel-Planck, scientific satellites
to be launched by Ariane V. So I deal a
bit with Ariane, but mainly with the Vega
project (a European launcher for small satellites,
managed by the Italians). I am also working
on preliminary drafts on preparations for
the future within a European context.
IOONOS: What is
an ideal trajectory ?
Amaya Espinosa Ramos: The trajectory is
there for the mission’s success. A
priori, the optimal trajectory is the one
that will maximise the payload launched.
But you can look to optimise other criteria,
such as fuel consumption. Knowing the launcher
configuration, its mass and propulsion features,
you fix its optimal trajectory that must
comply with various flight constraints (requirements),
such as visibility to ground stations at
certain phases, splashdown once the motor
switches off or overflying earth (protecting
the population). We have to penalise it
to take the mission requirements into account.
The launcher’s flight algorithm (navigation,
guidance and control) should be following
this trajectory from launch to put this
satellite into orbit. We also have to take
into account disturbances that might take
place during flight, such as atmosphere,
wind, aerodynamics, boost etc. The risk
is to make an injection error on account
of an insufficient amount of fuel, leading
to early burnout. So the satellite has to
compensate, and make use of energy to reach
its final orbit, which might impact negatively
on its life span. This will not wreck the
mission, but it will not be optimal.
IOONOS: What are
the constraints of the job ?
Amaya Espinosa Ramos: In the dialogue between
space agencies and industrial companies
we sometimes get difficult schedules, but
the main constraint is commercial and political.
Irrespective of the quality of the technologies
that you can invent, you have to find clients
to develop them. And our work, the future
of our projects, depends on the ambitions
of European space policy. In Europe access
to space remains a priority, but manned
flight is not.
IOONOS: What is
the main interest you find in your work
?
Amaya Espinosa Ramos: The calculation of
trajectories during a launcher’s development
phase or test flights are a big motivator.
When a major item is changed in a launcher,
it cannot be guaranteed that it will behave
like the previous launcher. But the big
pleasure is the preliminary designs, where
constraints take back seat to dreaming and
invention. We rethink everything to imagine
a further development of Ariane or Vega.
For example, we think through new propulsion
systems: helio-thermic propulsion (using
solar light), launchers that are plane-launched,
reusable ones etc. Sometimes there are surprises,
new questions arise, and you really get
the feeling of contributing to the future
of the conquest of space.
IOONOS: Does being
a woman in the space field and working outside
your own country cause problems ?
Amaya Espinosa Ramos: Working in a country
other than one’s own is not a problem,
but you do have to make an effort to speak
the language. The first 3 months in France
were a bit difficult for me, but afterwards
I managed; I would go over my grammar when
I left the office. As far as being a woman
is concerned, it seems to me that you always
have to do more to be respected in your
profession. At CNES there is equality and
I have not noticed differences of treatment
in French industrial companies. However,
in Italy, the people I deal with are sometimes
surprised to be working with a woman. Russian
engineers fail to understand how we can
carry out the same profession as them, especially
if you are young, and they therefore assume
we are just interpreters…
IOONOS: What advice
would you give to young people who want
to work in the space industry ?
Amaya Espinosa Ramos: Never close any doors,
look at what is available in the various
companies; there are many jobs and fields
of activity, which one cannot even imagine.
You have to make the most of your start
and your energy to move forward prior to
settling down in a profession.
IOONOS: Does space
make you dream ?
Amaya Espinosa Ramos: Journeys to the Kourou
launch base remain one of my best memories:
to feel the power of the launcher at lift-off
gave me goose pimples! I still want to get
onboard; if I cannot manage it now, I’ll
pay for a space flight when I retire! For
me, dreaming of space is really to encounter
another dimension of life! I dream that
a probe will detect other life or that we
will be contacted…
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