Meet Alexandra Reitu, Software Engineer for YPSAT !

Tell us a bit about yourself, what is your job at ESA?

Hi, my name is Reitu Alexandra and I am a navigation engineer. I started my studies in Romania at the Universitatea POLITEHNICA din Bucure?ti , where I specialized in Systems Engineering and Industrial Informatics. Afterwards I got a master’s degree in Earth Oriented Space Sciences from the Technical University of Munich . Here at ESA I work as a YGT in the field of satellite navigation, more specifically LEO-PNT. As this is a rather new topic of research for ESA, my job involves a lot of reading and running simulations. It is very exciting for me to witness the early stages of such projects, that will shape the future of GNSS in Europe.

Tell us about YPSat: What made you join the project? What is your role in YPSat ?

I heard about YPSAT a few weeks after starting my YGT, from an office colleague. It was a life-long dream for me to take part in the launch of a cube sat, so I naturally wanted to know more about it. My role in YPSAT is to program the data transmission and communication between the OBC and transmitter of the satellite. Considering I studied informatics in my undergrad, I was really looking forward to get back to this subject. It was an amazing opportunity to get back to the basics of my engineering formation and to remember concepts and programming languages that I did not use in years.

What has been the biggest challenge for you?

The biggest challenge for me came from the fact that I did not have any professional experience writing embedded code, apart from a couple of university courses taken years ago. So, re-learning all that was needed took a good amount of work and time (and the process is still ongoing). But in the end this was exactly the reason why I joined YPSAT : to branch out, to learn and to be able to work on something I would otherwise not have access to.

How is your experience with YPSat?

I have to say I find it amazing that a group of young engineers and scientists were trusted by ESA so much, and that it was possible to receive the necessary resources to kickstart this project. It probably is a once in a lifetime opportunity for many of us and everyone is very determined to do their job as best as they can.

What are you most proud of?

I am going to be very frank here and say that I am proud of sticking with it through the first few months. The volume of information and documentation that you have to go through when joining such a project is huge, especially since I joined in the second year when most things were already settled. The deadline was quite ambitious from the start, so there is little time for delays and everyone has to do their part. And of course since the participation is voluntary, we all work on it on top of our normal jobs at European Space Agency - ESA , so the time can be tight sometimes.

What surprised you the most?

Like most programmers, I am naturally always surprised whenever my code works!

But seriously, what I found most surprising while being a part of YPSAT is how fast the team works and how passionate they are. Whenever you need help or guidance, all you need to do is find the person to ask and they will do their best to help you out. Everyone is very determined to see this project through and it shows!

So I would say that besides improving my technical and programming knowledge, participating in this project also taught me a lot about team work and personal responsibility.

Your best memory?

My best memory has to be running the first line of code that accomplished the communication between the programming board and the transmitter. It was late, the lab was empty, and nothing I did seemed to work out. I was already close to wrapping it up and going home, when I noticed a led started blinking on the transmitter. Maybe this doesn’t sound like much, but this was the first moment when I said to myself “That’s it, I can do this!”.

Describe YPSat in 1 quote or word?

One word to describe it would definitely be “brave”.

How do you feel about your work going to space?

It is a dream come true, I am very excited about this!

What's next for you?

For now I want to continue working for European Space Agency - ESA as a YGT, as working in the space industry has always been my life’s dream. And of course, since YPSat2 is already starting, I am hoping to work on this too !