Experts dissect fact versus fiction in ESA’s new short film, "The Burn."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhM-bqXTKoU
‘The Burn’ is a dramatisation set in the near future at ESA’s ESOC mission control centre in Germany, and tells the story of a mission control team that is about to conduct an orbit entry manoeuvre. All is apparently going well… until it doesn’t.
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The film focuses on how the team react to an unexpected problem with their spacecraft and highlights the expertise of teams working under intense pressure.
While it depicts an entirely plausible plotline, some aspects of what really happens at mission control were fictionalised in favour of time and storytelling.
In this audiocast, three experienced engineers working on real ESA missions discuss what they found most authentic in the movie, and what aspects of their work the story gets right.
This audiocast was recorded at ESA's ESOC mission control centre, Darmstadt, Germany, 12 November 2019.
Host: Daniel Scuka
Guests: Bruno Sousa, Ignacio Tanco, Elsa Montagnon
Bruno Sousa has been working as the Spacecraft Operations Manager for ESA’s Cluster mission since 2015. Previously, he was an engineer on Venus Express and on Solar Orbiter.
Ignacio Tanco is the Spacecraft Operations Manager for the JUICE mission, and is now building up a team and the ground segment operations activities for a launch planned in 2024. He has previously worked on a number of other interplanetary and Earth missions.
Elsa Montagnon has been the Spacecraft Operations Manager for the ESA/JAXA BepiColombo mission since 2007. She previously worked on the flight control team for Rosetta.
