Q & A with ESA HST Drive Electronics Expert

Name: Udo Rapp
Title: Engineering Support for the Solar Array Drive Electronics (SADE).
What is your area of expertise?
My expertise is the Solar Array Drive Electronics (SADE) that controls all rotations of the solar arrays.
What made you choose this field?
I have been leading projects designing drive electronics for all kind of mechanisms on satellites for many years. [...]

ESA HST team member Udo Rapp at Kennedy Space Center
Name: Udo Rapp
Title: Engineering Support for the Solar Array Drive Electronics (SADE).
What is your area of expertise?
My expertise is the Solar Array Drive Electronics (SADE) that controls all rotations of the solar arrays.
What made you choose this field?
I have been leading projects designing drive electronics for all kind of mechanisms on satellites for many years. I feel this is a quite interesting job as you are always working on projects where you can directly see the effects and the operation of the electronics; if the mechanism performs its tasks and movements as intended and with the required accuracy, you did a good job!
What are the challenges for the Drive Electronics for the Solar Arrays?
Well, the SADE (Solar Array Drive Electronics) for the ...