To secure subcontractors and equipment suppliers, the prime contractor
and its co-team reviewed 85 proposals, ultimately assembling a consortium of
43 companies from 13 countries across Europe.
To accelerate the process, the team relied on fast-tracking: As each subcontractor was selected, it immediately began its work, so that bidding and
development ran in parallel until all the subcontractors were brought
onboard. Many were involved only until they delivered their parts and
were called back only in case of a problem.
SIMULATION REQUIRED
To improve the accuracy and resolution of the data that the satellite
would collect, the team planned for GOCE to orbit at an exceptionally
low altitude of just 255 kilometers (158 miles) above the Earth. The team
developed a state-of-the-art gradiometer that would measure the pull of
gravity with an unprecedented level of accuracy. It’s like the rocket-science version of the device that detects the orientation of a smartphone.
The gradiometer uses six extremely sensitive accelerometers, which
are so precise that scientists can measure the difference of the gravity acceleration between two accelerometers just half a meter apart. If
the satellite were an enormous oil tanker floating freely in space, one
of these accelerometers would register the impact of a single snowflake
landing on its deck.
Because the accelerometers are 100 times more sensitive than any
such devices launched before, the entire satellite had to be designed without
“You go to meetings in
Switzerland, and they’re often
different than meetings in
Athens. The cultures, ambitions,
backgrounds, management styles,
the way people deal with stress
and deadlines—it’s all different. It’s
part of the challenge, but part of
the beauty as well.”
—Rune Floberghagen, PhD, ESA, Rome, Italy
GOCE project manager Danilo Muzi
during a launch rehearsal
Training for the
launch of GOCE
at the European
Space Operations
Centre, Darmstadt,
Germany
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