Profile
Aisling Shannon
My CV
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Education:
St. Josephs College, Summerhill, Athlone and University of Limerick
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Qualifications:
Honours degree in Aeronautical Engineering
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Work History:
My first graduate job was in England at a company called GKN, who made aircraft parts. Next I worked at a company called Astrium (now Airbus) also in England, who are a spacecraft company. I followed this working at SSTL as a Structures Consultant, before joining ESA.
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Current Job:
I work as a Structures Engineer at the European Space Agency (ESA)
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Read more
My role is working on a satellite programme called EarthCARE, which is a spacecraft in the Earth Observation domain looking at Cloud and Aerosol Profiles. This programme is a cooperation programme with the Japanese Space Agency (JAXA). My role, as a Structural Engineer, is to ensure that the design and build of each element of the spacecraft is strong enough to survive the launch and will perform its’ function for the duration of the spacecraft mission.
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My Typical Day:
Problem solving and reviewing documentation
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Read more
I spend most of my days in front of the computer or on the phone. The industrial team is spread all across Europe – and beyond, so we can not sit face to face all the time to discuss issues. We use teleconferencing and webex to discuss problems to solve, report progress or plan the next steps. The way that we keep up to speed with everything that is going on, is through documentation. So I spend a lot of time reading reports. Depending on the stage of the project, I am either looking at design, analysis, progress or test reports. At the start of the programme, we defined specifications to ensure that Industry design and build what we want. Quite often we get requests to deviate from the specification, so each of those have to be assessed to check if it is possible. If not, then we work together to find a solution that Industry can manage and we are satisfied that it will be sufficient to perform the necessary function.
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My Interview
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How would you describe yourself in 3 words?
Logical, Irish and Happy
What did you want to be after you left school?
Pilot
Were you ever in trouble at school?
not really
Who is your favourite singer or band?
Coldplay
What's your favourite food?
sushi
If you had 3 wishes for yourself what would they be? - be honest!
I would wish for myself and my family to be healthy and happy, I would also wish to be a space tourist!
Tell us a joke.
What is orange and sounds like a parrot??? A carrot!!
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