phsics or engineering?

[biggysmalls]

hi there just looking for a bit of advice really? my overall goal after getting my degree is to work in the space sector working on satellites and such like. i know there is a career path for both engineering and physics graduates in this business but which would open the most doors for me?

any help would be great thanks

[Capricorn]

In broad terms I would say that Engineering would be the better.

To do Physics really means one area, semiconductor physics, low temperature physics, optical physics. Also you may need a PhD in order to be considered.

I work for a company producing equipment of the oil and gas business, the last 4 people they have employed all had a PhD. It is not a reaserch place just a fairly standard middle of the road engineering company.

Astrium, Stevenage is basiclly a good engineering company. They put satellites together and test them out but the pieces of equipment are produced by small specialist companies.

If you manage to get into one of those then great, buit what happens after the one bit of equipment is made and blasted into space?

What do you means by Space industry? Writing and testing the software for a satellite control system is highly relevant. Something I suspect Astrium do a lot of. Looking after the cooling of sensors, just getting the pipe work right, is another that occurs on nearly all scopes on earth, radio and optical.

One thing to remember is that doing specialised work is fine, but count on getting made redundant at least twice and your skills have to be transferable. Also what is specialised today will be common in 2-3 years time.

May be irrelevant as most physicists end up in engineering.

Look up Astrium and see what vacancies they have, should give you an idea of what a space company looks for.

Big question: What is your degree in?