Scientist who cleaned space toilet on work experience now leading Mars exploration teams

Cleaning a space toilet while on work experience was Claire Parfitt’s first introduction to a career away from Earth’s orbit.

But she never imagined her time at the National Space Centre in Leicester, when she was 14, would one day see her lead a team exploring future Mars missions.

Parfitt, originally from Nottingham, now works for the European Space Agency’s European Space Research and Technology Centre in the Netherlands.

The 42-year-old joined the space industry after securing a physics degree and a PhD in spacecraft power systems engineering.

She has since worked on missions such as the ExoMars, external Rosalind Franklin rover, which will explore the surface of Mars.

She has also worked on the SMILE, external mission – officially known as the Solar wind, Magnetospheric, Ionic Link Explorer mission – which uses four science instruments to study how Earth responds to the solar wind from the Sun.

But Parfitt still recalls how support in her early years, including from her science teachers at Fernwood School in Wollaton, helped pave the way for her career.

She had initially applied for work experience at NASA, which was turned down, but she was eventually able to secure a placement at the National Space Centre.

During her time there, staff were planning and collecting artefacts for the opening of the country’s flagship space science attraction – the National Space Centre.

“I just knew that’s always what I wanted to do,” she said.

“The director of the Space Centre in those days was a lady called Alex Hall.

“To see someone in that position, I think it really helped me to envisage my own career in the space industry.”