• Question: how long have you been an engineer

    Asked by daisy to Stephen - ESA Team on 11 Feb 2020.
    • Photo: Stephen Durrant

      Stephen Durrant answered on 11 Feb 2020:

      I have been a Engineering Technician for approx. 9 years and then an Engineer for 29 years, since I left school when I was 16 after my GCSE’s (O-levels/A-levels in those days!). I always liked being in the Workshops and Technical Drawing classes when I was at school. I was kinda lucky and got an Apprenticeship in a company that built Spacecraft! That started my interest in Engineering. I was able to go to college as part of the apprenticeship and then once that was complete I decided to go for a Masters Degree to become an Engineer. During the Apprenticeship, I was able to work on Spacecraft Mechanism which I was really interested in and this became my career as a Mechanism Engineer. When I came to ESA, I was lucky enough to be assigned to work on the Beagle 2 Project in 2001 which was my first Mars mission, from that time I’ve been involved in Mars Mission Studies and now the ExoMars Rover.

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