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19 had previously flown on EURECA [an ESA scientific satellite mission] and been retrieved by the Shuttle. “Then there were various experimental units that their development teams were keen to see demonstrated in orbit, even on just a short mission. So, the team worked with ESA experts and together we designed, built, tested and operated our first satellite – an amazing experience!” The 350 kg TEAMSAT was launched on Ariane 502 underneath Maqsat H in October 1997, carrying five experiments provided by European universities. The spacecraft comprised two parts – ‘TEAM’, which remained attached to Maqsat H, and the Young Engineers’ Satellite, which was released on a tether. Along with fellow graduate trainee Andy Bradford, Dr Kingston coordinated the assembly, testing and flight operations of the TEAM section. The entire project, from the initial idea to the end of the mission, lasted a year. From science to engineering Sciences, art and design were her favourite subjects at school, and led her to study physics at Leicester University, England, where she developed a passion for space science. “How can you not be amazed by other stars and planets?” she asks, rhetorically. “However, I found I was more interested in the more practical, engineering- focused modules of the space technology part of the degree, particularly space systems engineering. “My final-year dissertation was supervised by Mark Sims, who was later the mission manager for the Beagle 2 Mars mission. He was doing very interesting work as a space systems engineer, and I asked him how I could get to do his job.” His advice led to an MSc in astronautics and space engineering, and subsequently her engineering doctorate in spacecraft design, both at Cranfield University in England. Dr Kingston regards Sims, Ockels and Bandecchi as mentors, along with Tom Bowling and Steve Hobbs at Cranfield, where she is now a senior lecturer in the Centre for Autonomous and Cyberphysical Systems and director of the astronautics and space engineering MSc course, while also acting as consultant space insurance adviser to the Global Aerospace Underwriting Managers company, in London. Debris mitigation sails Dr Kingston is also currently researching solutions to the space debris problem and ways in which space can be used more sustainably and efficiently through initiatives such as on-orbit servicing, assembly, manufacture and repurposing of spacecraft. A promising approach to space debris, she says, is ensuring that satellites re- enter the Earth’s atmosphere as soon as is practical when their service lives are over. In that vein, she has been involved with drag sail de-orbit mechanisms (DOMs) that are deployed to increase the spacecraft’s drag in the thin remnants Dr Jenny Kingston | In conversation Unmanned Systems Technology | December/January 2019 Cranfield’s first drag sail, the Icarus-1. The idea behind it is to increase the atmospheric drag on satellites in low orbit so that they fall back to Earth more quickly, mitigating the amount of space debris (Courtesy of Cranfield Aerospace) Dr Kingston working on TEAMSAT, which shared a payload bay with Maqsat H (Courtesy of the ESA)