Jenny Hamilton: Mission Operations Engineer

Job title:

Mission Operations Engineer at Goonhilly Earth Station Ltd

Location:

Cornwall

What inspired you to go into engineering?

I liked the combination of problem solving and creativity involved in engineering, you get to use your skills to build things that can have a real impact on the world.

What do you love about your job?

I really love the variety, sometimes you're tracking spacecraft, sometimes you're writing software and scripts, and sometimes you're involved with more practical jobs like antenna maintenance. I also love knowing that the signals we're sending and receiving from our deep space antenna are sometimes travelling millions of kilometres across the solar system before reaching their destination.

How did you get your job?

I got into this job in a bit of a round about way, I studied physics at university before working in web and software development for 8 years. Both of these things helped me get my current job.

What do you think will be the most exciting developments in your industry over the next 5-10 years?

It's a very exciting time to be involved in the space industry. There's the race to get humans back on the moon and hopefully establish a lunar base. As well as lots of other exciting spacecraft that are going to be launched or have been launched, such as ESA's JUICE which is on it's way to study Jupiter's moons to see if they could potentially be habitable for life. Earth stations like Goonhilly will be needed to track all of these spacecraft.