Our team and mission

This position can be based:

• At the European Space Operations Centre (ESOC) - Darmstadt, Germany
• At the European Space Astronomy Centre  (ESAC) - Near Madrid, Spain, with possible visits to Cebreros Station

Under the direct authority of the Mission Operations Department, the Ground Facilities Operations Division manages, operates and maintains the Telemetry, Tracking and Command (TT&C) stations of the ESA tracking station network (ESTRACK) , ensures its integrity, and interfaces with other operational entities for the provision of non- ESA TT&C station support.

The Division specifies the user requirements for all ground facilities in support of missions and validates all related equipment before operational use. The Division is responsible for the management, operation and maintenance of the Operations Control Centre facilities at ESOC, and for providing station and network support to other agencies and external customers as required.

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: Cebreros STC data harmonization and mining

The aim of this study is to have a SW first prototype able to retrieve archived data and run analysis allowing the early detection of anomalies on ground station subsystem, similar of what is happening at spacecraft level where the WebMUST system is implemented to retrieve, display, and analyse telemetry data. The Station Computer, STC, is in charge of acquiring lots of information and data from different Cebreros antenna components and subsystems. It can archive selected information using a tool called Light Monitoring System (LMS) The archived data can easily be  queried, retrieved and displayed in a user friendly quick manner. 

As first step, you will be expected to identify ground station key parameters available in the STC that could be used to monitor the long term status of system like the antenna motor, air condition , power amplifier, etc. Then a user interface shall be implemented to retrieve the data archived by the STC_LMS tool followed by the implementation of analysis methods allowing early detection anomalies. The analysis can be based on AI or other available

.

2) Topic 2: Public relations SW suite for Cebreros station

External visits to Cebreros station are coming more and more frequent in particular visits from the local ESA museum at Cebreros town. These visits are very useful to visualize to the general public ESA and OPS activities in Spain. Currently there is not any dedicated SW suite at the station that we could use to graphically and easily visualize these activities.

What we propose here is to implement a dedicated SW suite that using as input the overall ESTRACK schedule, may visualize in a very graphical format the mission that the antenna is currently tracking, its geometrical position and attitude, position, distance, key information etc.

Also using GIS technics the SW shall also display the antenna pointing, location and key parameters. The SW should also allow the possibility to see what the other stations are tracking, which spacecrafts in which orbital position etc.

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:

• Good programming skills mainly in Python or/and Java.
• Good knowledge of databases languages such as MySQL/MariaDB
• Good knowledge of statistics, data mining and Artificial Intelligence technics

2) Topic 2: 

• Good programming skills mainly in Python or/and Java, graphical programs and Web based tools.
• Good knowledge of orbital mechanics and GIS.