Charly Feldman

"I work in a small team that are part of a huge team building space telescopes. Day to day I work either on my own or with a small group of people which I find very comfortable. But the work that we are doing is part of a much larger effort across Europe to build the instrument. As I have dyslexia, I am more comfortable with the more practical elements of my job and I find the documents hard work, but they are a vital part of what I do. Writing and following procedures when building things that will be launched in to space, is an essential skill."

"I design, model, test and build X-ray telescopes for large scale space based missions. I work with engineers, technicians and other scientists in order to develop instruments that will fulfil the science goals of each mission. The most exciting thing about my job is watching something I have built be launched in to space, I have not yet seen any data from my instruments but the prospect is very exciting! Patience is vital as it takes years to develop each instrument and the journey to another planet can also take many years. I love working on things that no one has done before and being the first to try and work out what is going on from the results. Starting salaries range from £28,000 to £34,800. "

"I took a very straight route to my current role. I took A-levels in Physics, Maths, Chemistry and Computing and then went to the University of Manchester to do a degree in Physics with Astrophysics. I did a 4 year course at Manchester to obtain an MPhys instead of doing a bachelors and then a masters. I then went to the University of Leicester to do a PhD in X-ray optics. I took 3 years to complete my PhD and then did a 1 year position continuing my work. In 2010, I started working on the European Space Agency mission BepiColombo and helping develop and build the MIXS instrument. That was launched in October 2018 and is due to get to Mercury in March/April 2025. I am currently working on a Chinese-French mission called SVOM and I have helped design the flight X-ray optic. I am currently working on 4 other future space missions as well. "

"In my spare time I run. A lot. I run marathons and ultras (longer than 30 miles), which take a lot of training. I am also a mum of 3 and took time out each time to have my children. It is very hectic but I would not have it any other way, most of the time. When there are no COVID restrictions, I also hope to go back to ballet and achieve my goal of doing fouettes (very hard turns) on pointe! I also like sewing clothes and baking."

"I do a lot of sitting at a computer but what I do there can vary wildly. Some days I have to write test plans, explaining how we are going to make sure something we are building works, or write up test reports or modelling. Modelling is where I make a version of my experiment on the computer and ask what the results should look like. This is a vital step as it can tell us if what we see when testing is right or not. I also write/read a lot of emails to other members of the teams to find out where different parts of the project are up to and exchanging information or organising meetings. I also spend time in the lab and clean room setting up experiments or looking at flight hardware to make sure it looks ok and sometimes I get to put things together (using glue and tools) that will eventually be in space! In non COVID times, I also get to go all round the world for meetings and conferences and can spend up to a week in other cities."

"A-level Physics, Chemistry, Maths and Computing (BCCC)MPhys Physics with Astrophysics: Upper 2nd classPhD: Awarded from the University of Leicester 2009"