‘I really wanted a position where I would remain involved in what I design from start to finish. To witness the development of a space instrument from the drawing board to launch, and then even the data analysis, that is unique.’
Your design stays indoors
‘This is why I came to work at SRON. Before this, I was in chip manufacturing and my work then always involved just a small step, just a smaller stage in the creation of something greater. When we work on an instrument at SRON, your work will not disappear out of sight. It goes on to the next expertise, but remains in-house from the drawing board to the launch. Even up to and including the interpretation of the data by colleagues from the scientific programmes. So you also get to witness how scientists use the instrument.’
Experiencing the life cycle of an instrument
n our profession, the road from the drawing board to a launch is long. The instrument X-IFU, which we are developing with partners for ESA’s X-ray telescope NewAthena, will not be launched for years. But initial plans dated back to 1996 and I was working on test setups as early as 2000.
I also worked in 2006 on SRON’s far-infrared molecule meter HIFI, which made its measurements from the Herschel telescope since 2009. To witness the launch and being able to see what our work brings to science is just unique.’
Henk van Weers, Mechanical Design Engineer
