Mission Team
Agustin Chicarro Project Scientist
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As Project Scientist, Agustin Chicarro monitors the design and development of the scientific instruments that will fly on Mars Express. His job involves not only making sure that work is progressing on schedule, but also that the scientific return of each instrument will fulfil its scientific objectives. "I'm based at ESTEC, but I spend much of my time travelling around Europe visiting the instrument teams in their research institutes," he says.
Chicarro's personal route to Mars began in Madrid, Spain where he was born on 23 July 1956. "When I was a teenager I wanted to become a doctor. Then I began to realise that medicine is a part of life science, which is a part of Earth science. The Earth, in turn, is just one planet among others in the solar system. I went in the opposite direction of somebody who wants to specialise by expanding my horizons," he says. So after studying biology, chemistry and geology at undergraduate level, he went on to a masters degree in geology, followed by PhD in "compressive tectonics of Mars" at the University of Paris in Orsay. He then spent three years at the Lunar and Planetary Institute in Houston, Texas, where he conducted research on the geology of Mars, the Moon and Mercury. After continuing research in Madrid and teaching at universities in Taipei, Taiwan for three more years, he joined ESTEC in 1988 where he studied proposals for future missions to Mars and the Moon before becoming Mars Express Project Scientist. "I still have an interest in biology," he says. "So I'm really excited that a major goal for Mars Express is to find out whether there is or has been life on Mars".
Rudi Schmidt Project Manager
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As Mars Express Project Manager, Rudi Schmidt has overall responsibility for the mission. He manages a team of ten engineers at ESTEC and oversees the design and construction work in industry.
He embarked on his career in space science almost fortuitously. After completing a PhD in his hometown of Graz, Austria, he turned to his local newspaper to search for a job. "Between the vacancies for cooks, butchers and builders, was one for a physicist at the Graz Space Research Institute. I got the job, so I started working in space physics" he says. For his PhD, he had developed superconducting magnetic field sensors to measure tiny electrical currents in the human body, especially the heart and the brain. Within three years, he was building magnetic field sensors that would fly on the Venera 13 and 14 spacecraft past Venus and, later, on the VEGA 1 and 2 spacecraft to investigate Comet Halley.
In 1982, Schmidt joined the staff of ESTEC and, after a few months, started work on the Cluster mission to which he was appointed Project Scientist in 1986. "I saw the mission going through all phases until the launch disaster on 4 June 1996. The sight of ten years' work going up in smoke within a fraction of a second brought tears to our eyes. So for the next year, I devoted all my enthusiasm to the resurrection of the mission."
When planning and implementing the Cluster Science Data System, he worked with engineers and people from industry as well as with scientists. The experience gave him a taste for managing complex projects involving a diverse group of people. "I didn't hesitate at all when I was asked to manage the Mars Express studies in industry," he says.
Schmidt still goes back to Graz where he was born on 13 February 1949. "In 1994, I was appointed associate professor at the Technical University of Graz. I lecture once a year at the University, which helps to keep me in touch with the young generation," he says.