Review the evidence signals before interviewing. Then use the anchored descriptions—not instinct alone—to choose the score that best matches each answer.
01
Evaluation factor
Technical depth
35% weight
Probe depth in closed-loop ECLSS: CO2 removal (amine swing beds, Sabatier), water recovery rates, pressure vessel and airlock design, regolith shielding for GCR, and NASA-STD-3001 limits.
Evidence to listen for
Explains the physics or mechanism behind their work, not just the tooling
Names the standards, tolerances, and constraints they designed against
Can defend a design decision under follow-up questions
Distinguishes what they personally engineered from what the team delivered
Five-point scoring guide
1
Poor
Cannot explain the fundamentals of their own stated specialism.
2
Needs Improvement
Knows the vocabulary but not the underlying mechanism; struggles under follow-ups.
3
Satisfactory
Solid working knowledge for the role; depth thins out on edge cases.
4
Very Good
Strong command of the domain; explains trade-offs and defends decisions well.
5
Excellent
Quantifies life support loop closure, cabin ppCO2 targets and shielding areal density, and cites the standards driving each requirement.
02
Evaluation factor
Work that shipped
30% weight
Ask what hardware or habitat subsystems they carried past PDR/CDR: TRL advanced, mass and power budgets held, analog deployments at HERA, HI-SEAS or Mars Dune Alpha.
Evidence to listen for
Names specific programmes, parts, or systems that reached production or field use
States their own scope inside the project
Can give measured outcomes: yield, cycle time, cost, failure rate
Explains what went wrong and what they changed
Five-point scoring guide
1
Poor
No delivered work; experience is coursework, lab-only, or purely observational.
2
Needs Improvement
Contributed to projects but cannot say what shipped or what their part was.
3
Satisfactory
Has delivered real work; outcomes described without numbers.
4
Very Good
Names shipped work and their scope, with some measured results.
5
Excellent
Names specific builds and test campaigns, their TRL movement, and the mass, power or volume margins they personally defended.
03
Evaluation factor
Diagnosis under uncertainty
20% weight
Test how they handled anomalies with no ground truth: dust intrusion, seal leak-down rates, thermal loop instability. Look for FMEA, fault trees, and abort criteria they wrote.
Evidence to listen for
Describes a real failure they chased to root cause
Shows a method: isolate variables, reproduce, measure, eliminate
Distinguishes correlation from cause
Says what they ruled out and why, not only what the answer turned out to be
Five-point scoring guide
1
Poor
No diagnostic method; guesses or escalates immediately.
2
Needs Improvement
Trial and error with no structure; cannot explain how they narrowed the cause.
3
Satisfactory
Reasonable method on familiar problems; less structured on novel ones.
4
Very Good
Clear systematic approach with a real root-cause story.
5
Excellent
Walks through an off-nominal case with instrumentation logic, leak isolation steps, and the redundancy assumption that turned out wrong.
04
Evaluation factor
Working across the org
15% weight
Judge how they coordinated with crew health, EVA, power, and mission ops teams; look for SysML models, interface control documents, and requirement trades they arbitrated.
Evidence to listen for
Explains technical constraints to non-technical stakeholders without condescension
Has negotiated scope, cost, or timeline with manufacturing, product, or suppliers
Documents decisions so others can act on them
Takes review feedback without defensiveness
Five-point scoring guide
1
Poor
Cannot communicate outside their specialism; dismissive of other functions.
2
Needs Improvement
Communication gaps cause rework; avoids stakeholder contact.
3
Satisfactory
Works adequately with other teams; documentation is thin.
4
Very Good
Communicates clearly across functions; reliable collaborator.
5
Excellent
Describes brokering a concrete interface conflict, for example EVA airlock cadence versus consumables budget, and the documented trade that resolved it.
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