Job card Geraldine Marien, Belgium

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JOB CARD
GERALDINE MARIEN, Space engineer
Job title: International Space Station (ISS) Operations
Engineer
Questions Answers
GENERALQUESTIONSABOUTYOURJOB
What is your daily routine? What does your job consist
of?
"I have 2 sides to my job:
- one doing operations in real
time: this means that I operate
instruments for specific
experiments on the ISS from
ground. We sit behind
computer screens and monitor
the instruments to make sure
they keep on working well (e.g.
we monitor the temperature
to make sure they do not
overheat) and we send
commands to the instruments.
The commands are to make
the instrument do something,
e.g. start an observations or
stop an observation, move to a
certain position etc. This is all
being controlled from control
centers on ground via tele
commands.
- on the other side I spend my
time doing offline work. This
means anything that is not
real-time operations. When we
do not operate the
instruments on board of the
station, we make sure
everything is in place and we
have all the information we
need for when we do are
operating the instruments.
During this preparation work
we are a lot in contact with the
scientists that invented the
experiment and made the
instrument, we learn about

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the instruments and write
documents with all the
information we need in it to
know how to operate the
instrument, a bit like a manual
for operations. Also, any
experiment that is performed
on the station has to follow a
procedure with very specific
steps on how to do the
experiment and in what order
to do the things. These
procedures are written in
advance and tested to make
sure they work well. We write
these procedures in our offline
time.
So my days can be very
different. When I am doing
operations, I have a checklist
to follow and know exactly
what I will do that day. When I
work offline, I will be much
more in contact with other
people, writing e-mails and
documents, learning new
things."
Do you work at the office? Yes, when I am not in
operations, I work at the office
where I have a desk with a
computer. When I am in
operations, I work at the
control center where I have
several computer screens to
follow.
Is there any business travelling included? There can be business
travelling included in my job,
yes. For example, sometimes
we need to travel to another
control center in Europe for
training or for a specific
meeting or to meet the
scientists that we will be
working with on a specific
instrument/experiment. As the
ISS in a big international
collaboration between all the
countries in Europe for ESA
and then also the USA (NASA),

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Russia, Japan and Canada, we
often are in contact with many
different countries at the same
time and for some things we
need to travel to meet each
other.
Does the work involve public relations? In some way it does. You
definitely need to be able to
communicate well.
What type of communication is it? Communication between the
different persons that work on
1 project: the scientists, the
operators, the lead of the
mission to the ISS, the
planners of the time-schedule
of the mission, etc.
Do you sometimes work from home? I do not work from home, but
it could be possible when I do
off-line work.
Is there any difference in the salary: at the beginning and
at the end of your career?
Yes, there is. You start with a
junior salary and if things go
well, this should increase a
little every year.
Are there any career developments possible? Yes, there are. You can stay an
operator, but you can grow
into becoming the team lead
or go into another function
within the ISS operations
group, there are many
different jobs that make up the
team that make the missions
to the ISS possible.
What is your daily routine? What does your job consist
of?
This is a difficult question… I
guess everything. Primary
School marks the start of your
learning, building up
knowledge about a bit of
everything that surrounds you
and the topics you need to
understand how everything
works in the World and the
subjects you will learn about
later on in secondary and then
at university before getting
into your profession.
SKILLS
Which knowledge did you gain at primary school that
helps you with your profession now?
This is a difficult question… I
guess everything. Primary
School marks the start of your

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learning, building up
knowledge about a bit of
everything that surrounds you
and the topics you need to
understand how everything
works in the World and the
subjects you will learn about
later on in secondary and then
at university before getting
into your profession.
Is it necessary to speak any foreign language? Which
one? Which level? Why?
If you want to work in relation
with the ISS, you need to be
able to speak English at a
professional level. The ISS is an
international collaboration and
everything within it is done
and dealt with in English.
Is the working experience necessary? Not necessarily. I didn't have
any work experience in the
field before starting to work at
this job, but it was important
that I had a scientific or
engineering background to be
able to easily learn and
understand the experiments I
would work with.
Which technology skills are necessary? Some knowledge about them
yes.
What other skills are recommended? Communication and
organization skills.
PROFILE
What is the minimum of knowledge required for the job? A scientific or engineering
background
Is there extensive knowledge of STEM needed for the
job?
A good knowledge of physics is
needed yes.
Is there any manual labor included in your profession? not directly no.
OPINION
What advice would you give to students interested in
your profession?
If they want to do exactly what
I am doing, then they will need
to study a scientific or
engineering branch, but if they
are interested in Space in
general, then to do what they
enjoy doing. There are many
ways to join the Space field
without having done scientific
studies (for example law for
space law, communication for
Space media etc.). Stay
connected to the Space world,
the news and search the space

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related agencies and
organizations, there are many
summer schools or
programmes organized for
students they could participate
in and gain some experience
and make connections that
way.
What do you like the most about your job and is there
anything you dislike about it?
"I like the diversity of the job,
the combination of the
different tasks as an operator,
having real-time operation
moments where we have a
fixed planning and list of tasks
to follow, but also the offline
work where we can have some
more input. I enjoy the needed
communication as well, to
make the collaboration
between different parties work
to reach a common goal.