Our team and mission

This position is based at European Space Security and Education Centre (ESEC) - Redu, Belgium

ESEC, the European Space Security and Education Centre at Redu in Belgium is a centre of excellence for space cyber security services, home to ESA's PROBA mission control centre, the Space Weather Data Centre, the ESA Education Training Centre as well as part of ESA’s ground station network. ESEC provides S-band links for ESA’s network of ground stations, as well as in-orbit testing (IOT) for telecommunication and navigation satellites for which it hosts all the facilities used to test the Galileo signal. 

ESEC hosts part of the ESA Education program. It has welcomed participants to the ESA  Academy Training and Learning Facility, where, in collaboration with university academic institutions, ESA works to transfer expertise, knowhow and best practices to European university students. Since 2018, ESEC also hosts the ESA Academy CubeSat Support Facility, a state-of-the-art assembly integration and test facility to be used by student teams involved in Fly Your Satellite!, the ESA Education’s student CubeSat initiative.

The prime function of the operations team at ESEC/Redu (Belgium) is to interface satellites and ground facilities required for their control and utilisation.

The main tasks are:

• Satellite mission operations (planning, monitoring and control).
• Operational preparation for new missions.
• In-orbit testing of communications, data relay and navigation satellites.
• Ground facility operations and maintenance.

ESA activities at ESEC/Redu cover a wide range of disciplines and there is significant hands-on work.

For further information visit our web site: http://www.esa.int

Field(s) of activity for the internship

You can choose between the following topics:

1) Topic 1: Development of a mission support tool for the ESEC SmallSat Operations Centre

As an intern, you will support the ESEC SmallSat Operations team by developing an automated tool to support the PROBA operations. The tool to be developed will be chosen based on the mission’s needs at start of the internship as well as the intern’s capabilities and preferences. This activity shall be carried out at the ESA/ESEC and will be supported by different ESA experts; since the product will be used operationally close interaction with the SmallSat Operations team is expected.

Possible choices include but are not limited to

• An automated image processing chain for imagery taken by the CHIRS instrument on-board Proba-1 and may be based both on traditional image processing techniques as well as AI;
• A tool to support daily operations and regular reporting by analyzing and correlating spacecraft on-board events with other spacecraft telemetry and notifying the operations team if required.

In all cases, the data required by the implemented tool must be retrieved, generated and processed automatically at regular intervals to allow seamless integration into the ESEC ground segment and support operations without adding additional workload. You should be able to work independently but will be supported by the ESEC SmallSat Operations team.

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2) Topic 2: Development of a flight dynamics tool suite for the ESEC SmallSat Operations Centre

As an intern, you will support the ESEC SmallSat Operations team by configuring and extending the “geneos” flight dynamics tool suite to support the PROBA operations. This activity shall be carried out at the ESA/ESEC and will be supported by different ESA experts; since the product will be used operationally close interaction with the SmallSat Operations team is expected.

For the internship, the following activities are foreseen:

• Familiarisation with spacecraft operation planning and execution activities conducted from ESEC;
• In-depth analysis of the mission’s flight dynamics product needs;
• Exploration of the geneos tool suite;
• Configuration and extension of geneos tool suite to implement the previously identified products;
• Integration of geneos into the operational environment of the PROBA mission and interfacing with other elements of the ground segment.

You should be able to work independently but will be supported by the ESEC SmallSat Operations team.

Behavioural competencies

Result Orientation
Operational Efficiency
Fostering Cooperation
Relationship Management
Continuous Improvement
Forward Thinking

Education

You must have student status and be enrolled at university for the entire duration of the internship. You should preferably be in your final or second to last year of a university course at master’s level in a technical or scientific discipline.

Additional requirements

The working languages of the Agency are English and French. A good knowledge of one of these is required. Knowledge of another Member State language would be an asset.

Additional Requirements:

1) Topic 1:

• The applicant should have good interpersonal and communication skills and should be able to work in a multi-cultural environment, both independently and as part of a team
• Experience in programming (preferably Python) and software development is required
• Knowledge of AI-based development, telemetry or image processing, git version control and Linux command line use are considered assets

2) Topic 2: 

• The applicant should have good interpersonal and communication skills and should be able to work in a multi-cultural environment, both independently and as part of a team
• Experience in Python programming and software development as well as basic flight dynamics knowledge are required
• Knowledge of git version control and Linux command line use are considered assets