This week, Simon Lewis, Business Director for our Space Group and Manager for European Space Tribology Laboratory (ESTL) is celebrating his 34th year with ESR Technology. In order to recognise his hard work and dedication, we asked 10 Questions about his work and career to date and here is what Simon had to say…
1. How did you end up in your present role?
I started my career within ESTL in ball-bearing analysis as a co-developer for the first generation of the CABARET ball-bearing analysis software. I subsequently spent time as a Project Engineer doing tests in the lab and as a Tribological Consultant supporting the design of bearing systems and the selection of their lubricants. Meanwhile, after working on many tribological research, development and test activities for ESA and commercial clients, I ultimately became a Senior Engineer and Project Manager on mechanism activities (working on projects building hardware for MetOp, Alphasat and reaction wheel products for many new-space missions) before taking my present role managing ESTL, which I have been doing since 2013.
2. What was your first involvement in a flight project?
As I recall, that was the Huygens probe, which flew to Titan (a moon of Saturn). I did some bearing analysis for the parachute swivel mechanism as a consultancy input to the (UK) company responsible for supplying the parachute system. By chance, the same company contacted us again 28 years later and I took the call, they wanted the exact same solution for the Dragonfly probe (which is to be launched in 2028, again bound for Titan).
3. Have you touched anything that has been returned to Earth after flight?
A couple of examples, most notably, are the primary deployment system for the Hubble Space Telescope solar array, which we had to disassemble and inspect after >3000 days in flight. This has been extensively used for outreach work since then. But before that, my colleague Dave Forster and I had the interesting job of dismantling a pump system which flew on a protein crystallisation experiment on the Eureca mission (1992) to find out why it had failed in flight -that was an interesting one personally.
4. Why is Space Tribology Important?
In space you have limited power, usually no possibility to service hardware and often long life, potentially at extremes of temperature in a vacuum. All this means lubrication is critical. One other challenge is that hardware development times are often quite short. Tribological understanding supports valid accelerated development of hardware, reduces mission risk, helps achieve and extend mission life. It enables great science in the more exotic places in the Solar System and underpins cost-effective commercial access to the less exotic places where most Earth observation and telecom missions fly.
5. What kind of mechanisms have you supported?
Like many in our space team, I have experience in supporting the tribological solutions adopted in the development of space mechanisms of many kinds, including wheels, scan mechanisms, hold-down and release mechanisms, deployment devices, robotic devices, booms and others. We also support terrestrial vacuum hardware of all kinds, for example, in the semiconductor industry.
6. Whereabouts in the solar system does this hardware end up?
Of course, lots end up in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) and Geostationary Earth Orbit (GEO) for Earth Observation such as Envisat, Rapideye, meteorological (MetOp, MetOp-2G, MTG), navigation and commercial telecom missions. We are currently developing some lunar technology right now and have contributed to hardware that has flown to Mars, Jupiter (and its moons), Saturn (and its moons), Mercury and Venus, also specific orbits quite close to the sun and a comet.
7. Most Interesting Recent Project?
At the back-end of 2022, we were asked to support an anomaly review board looking into a problem that had developed with the MIRI instrument, one of 4 instruments on the~ $10Bn James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) in flight. A few colleagues and I took part in many calls with teams of other experts elsewhere in Europe and various folks at NASA, sometimes 30-40 participants. There was really rather little evidence to help us diagnose the problem, JWST is ~ 1.6million kilometres from Earth and telemetry is rather limited, but finally after a few months we came up with a diagnosis and a successful work-around which has enabled the instrument to continue operations.
8. What do you like about your role?
I’ve been here long enough to have recruited many, even most of my colleagues at some stage (and indeed taught quite a few of our clients on the Space Tribology Course we run). I have particularly enjoyed watching my team develop and seeing individuals grow into their roles. I really enjoy supporting ESA and industry – the space mechanism community is rather small and of course pretty niche – so you really can make a difference when you share your understanding and experience. The other aspect I really enjoy is being part of a team which is developing something new. In the past, this has been software, test rigs or actual flight hardware, and right now we are developing enhanced solid lubricants using our unique understanding based on experimentation.
9. Is it all about Europe then?
The focus for ESTL is the industry of the European Space Agency’s Member and Associate states (including Canada), but we work with other companies around the world too, especially when we consider the part of the business which provides lubricants for space and terrestrial vacuum applications In the last year or two, we have done work for clients in the USA (incl. NASA directly), South America, Australia and the Middle East.
10. Outside Work?
My wife and I have a grown-up daughter who is staying with us this month, and together with our two Jack Russells, two cats and a horse we have plenty to keep us occupied at home right now. But my main hobby is racing sailing dinghies, something I have been doing for even longer than space tribology!