Sian, 36, space engineer from Chelmsford. She is in the news again for being one of the major figures behind NASA’s soon-to-launch Artemis II mission. As an aerospace engineer working at Airbus, in Germany, Cleaver has been at the heart of designing large solar arrays for the European Service Module. This module has been key to the success of the Orion spacecraft which will be carrying four astronauts around the Moon later this week.
The Artemis II mission marks a significant milestone in human space exploration, as it will be the closest that humans have been to the lunar surface since the last Apollo mission in 1972. Cleaver’s artistry fuels an initiative to bring humanity back to the Moon. It brings us one step closer to putting humans on Mars and missions beyond.
In a statement, Cleaver shared her enthusiasm for playing an active role in such an important mission.
“I always wanted to work in the space industry and now I am doing that on a human space flight mission, which for me is a dream come true.” – Sian Cleaver
Her team at Airbus focused on creating the propulsion system that guides the Orion spacecraft. This new Combined Federal Campaign effort plays up their other, critical role in the mission. Cleaver thought back to how important the effort was. He stated that no whole generation has ever experienced a successful moon landing.
“There are a couple of generations who haven’t lived through a moon landing, it’s almost becoming ancient history in a way.” – Sian Cleaver
David Morris, the chief engineer for space imaging at Teledyne e2v in Chelmsford, shares similar sentiments about the potential impact of seeing humans on the Moon again. Now 65, Morris designs space imaging equipment that helps support some of the country’s most vital deep space missions. He’s hoping that the new mission creates as much buzz as the world felt during the first-ever moon landing in 1969.
“If you look back to what happened in 1969 and the transformational aspects of seeing men on the Moon, I’d like to think that similar global excitement can happen when we see it happen again. It will invigorate the world to think more about being ‘the world’ rather than just lots of separate nations.” – David Morris
Morris closed with a sense of awe about what was now possible to accomplish, saying,
“You get both a sense of pride and no little wonder that the things that we’ve actually built and touched from here will end up perhaps on the Moon, or perhaps exploring the far reaches of the galaxy.” – David Morris
