'Somebody’s got to track Santa'

As Cork looks forward to another cosy Christmas dinner, one man and his team might have another kind of dish on their minds.

Rory Fitzpatrick, CEO of Ireland’s National Space Centre which operates the Elfordstown Earthstation just outside Midleton, will be one of many Corkonians on call this Christmas Day.

Though the centre can carry out many of its duties autonomously for a few days, Rory will be popping in to make sure all systems are go on Christmas Day, and will be keeping one eye on his phone throughout the festive period in case of an emergency.

Mostly a commercial enterprise, the centre serves numerous clients and satellite operators across Europe and America.

“Somebody’s got to track Santa! I don't mind popping down for a look on Christmas Day and making sure everything is okay.

“If you get a call out if there's a really bad storm or if there's a power outage or anything like that, the main thing you're there for is to make sure there's no critical failures down the line, that things kick in the way they're supposed to and that the backups all work and the generators work.”

A few years back, a direct lightning strike to a transformer on New Year’s Eve meant Rory had to put a halt to celebrations and rush to the centre. Luckily, all backup systems and generators had kicked in perfectly. Rory, his technical team, and about 20 ESB staff spent a day and a half on site getting things back to normal.

Elfordstown Earthstation’s dominant feature is an impressive 32 metre satellite dish which towers over the campus. It was originally brought into use in 1984 to carry telephone calls between America and Ireland via satellite.

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It was made redundant in 1997 by the new transatlantic optical fibre cables.

However, with the global space industry booming and with man’s first steps on Mars apparently not too far away, efforts are underway to bring the dish back into use with hopes to get the old girl moving again in the new year.

Rory explained: “If people are going to go to the moon and Mars, which they are soon, you need to be able to talk to them and the big dishes are coming back into vogue again.

“NASA told us that if we refurb the dish, they will hire it off us, so the opportunity is there clearly, we just need to raise the money and get the funding to do it.”

With Ireland’s national yearly space budget relatively low, the National Space Centre has led a number of fundraising campaigns to help preserve and ultimately restore the dish.

Rory continued: “Can you imagine trying to build a 32 metre antenna dish? It would take you 20 years and it would be a nightmare.

“To build a piece of infrastructure like the dish we have would cost €35 million to €40 million, so the Irish Government just can't put that money into a project off the cuff and that's why it's difficult for us to get funding.

“First job is to have it moving, and then we'll put in new equipment - basic stuff initially that will allow us communicate with something. Once we start that, then it becomes available to NASA and to other space agencies for space communication,” Mr Fitzpatrick added.

To keep up to date with the National Space Centre, visit nationalspacecentre.eu.