Episode 115 – The European Space Agency: Human and Robotic Exploration

Hear about human and robotic space exploration with Belgian nuclear physicist Philippe Schoonejans. He is the European Space Agency’s (ESA) team leader for the Sample Transfer Arm, one of the European contributions to the NASA-ESA Mars Sample Return program. This mission will use robotic systems to return samples from the surface of Mars to Earth. ESA is composed of 28 member countries, and Philippe has cooperated extensively with NASA, Japan, Canada and Russia in his projects. He shares his complex projects and the many constraints facing international cooperation.



Table of Contents



03:03 … Meet Philippe 05:03 … NASA and ESA 05:50 … Philippe’s Role at ESA 08:06 … Favorite Projects 09:36 … The European Robotic Arm 11:40 … Prototype Testing 14:30 … Current Projects 16:03 … Getting to Mars 19:43 … COVID-19 Impact 22:30 … Keeping Teams Motivated 26:28 … Collaboration with Other Agencies 28:52 … Vendor and Stakeholder Communication 34:54 … International Cooperation 38:34 … Communicating Complex Projects 40:26 … Words of Advice and Lessons Learned 44:06 … Closing



PHILIPPE SCHOONEJANS:  ...we cherish the international cooperation.  We think it’s needed, and we know that we cannot do everything on our own, not even in Europe with our 28 countries, we cannot do everything.  So we do want to work together with everybody else, and with that also learn from what the others are doing.



WENDY GROUNDS:  Welcome
to Manage This, the podcast by project managers for project managers.  I’m Wendy Grounds, and with me in the studio
today is Bill Yates.



BILL YATES:  Wendy, we’re
going to go to space today.  Let’s
do it.



WENDY GROUNDS:  I
know.  I am so excited about today’s
guest.  We get to sit down with a project
manager in human and robotic exploration at the European
Space Agency.  And this is Philippe
Schoonejans.  Philippe is in the
Amsterdam area of the Netherlands.  And
we’re very excited to have him with us today. 
We’re particularly going to talk about the politically complex
international environment that he works in with many stakeholders and many
countries.  The European Space Agency I
think he said has 28 member states.



BILL YATES:  Yup.



WENDY GROUNDS:  And
they also work with other countries around the world, including NASA. 
He’ll tell us a little bit more about that.  But some of the projects that Philippe has
worked on, he’s been the project manager for the European
Robotic Arm for the International
Space Station, as well as working on a sample transfer arm.  He’s the project manager and team lead for
that.  It’s for a Mars
Sample Return Mission.



BILL YATES:  Isn’t
that fascinating?  And for our listeners,
you’re going to hear a lot of abbreviations or acronyms, so ISS, ESA,
International Space Station, European Space Agency, different things like
that.  NASA.  But Mars, I mean, we have been trying to get
to that red planet.  Since 1960 we’ve
been attempting to put satellites orbiting around that planet.  And there’s been some success.  But the one thing that we’ve never done is
bring anything back.  We’ve had
pictures.  We’ve had digital data.  But we don’t have any actual rocks or
samples.  And so this mission’s going on
now.



We do have, I think since 2003, the ESA has successfully put
Rovers on Mars, and so they’re slowly moving across that little red planet and
collecting data.  But one of the
fascinating things is Philippe and his team, they’re working at bringing the
rocks and the other things that they can collect back to Earth.  We haven’t done that yet.



WENDY GROUNDS:  It’s
easy to get overwhelmed just by the vast scope of this project and the
incredible things they’re doing.  But we’re
going to find that Philippe has some really good information and really
practical advice for project managers, particularly those who are working in an
international community.  So let’s get
right on and talk to Philippe.



BILL YATES:  Yeah.



WENDY GROUNDS: 
Philippe, welcome to Manage This.