Our team and mission

This position is based at the European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC) - Noordwijk, Netherlands

Under the direct authority of the Product Assurance and Safety Department, the Independent Safety Office is responsible for:

• Overseeing the implementation of the ESA policy, requirements and standards for all aspects of flight safety engineering, planetary protection, nuclear safety and space debris safety, (including re-entry safety);
• Supporting the development and maintenance of relevant policies, requirements and standards; coordinating and cooperating with international partners and bodies;
• Ensuring independent verification of compliance with regard to flight safety engineering, planetary protection, nuclear safety and space debris requirements;
• Collecting initiatives and establishing the Agency’s R&D plan of activities in the subject domains, except for space debris; ensuring the management and distribution of these activities to the relevant areas of expertise in the Agency;
• Providing independent verification and technical advice to ESA projects and suppliers in the subject domains, and supporting the resolution of in-flight anomalies.

The Head of Office chairs relevant internal and external boards concerning human flight safety, nuclear safety, space debris safety (including re-entry safety). For safety issues of orbital and re-entry debris, the Office is supported by the Space Debris Office.

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

Field(s) of activity for the internship

Topic: Space Debris Mitigation

Background

Following the call from ESA's Director General to stop the generation of debris in valuable orbits by 2030, ESA's Zero Debris Approach has been devised. This resulted in ESA's Space Debris Mitigation Policy and Technical Standards to be updated during 2023. In particular, the standard foresees stricter mitigation measures and novel analyses to get a more accurate representation of the risk associated to space missions in their different phases.

Objective(s) of the Activity 

To familiarise the community with the new requirements and related verification methods, training material needs to be developed.  You will:

• Contribute to the preparation of meaningful training material both for internal (ESA) and external (industry) parties;
• Analyse some representative missions, documenting how the requirements in the new ESA's Space Debris Mitigation standard can be addressed using existing ESA tools and data resources; 
• Identify, during this process, possible improvements of ESA tools and data resources, which can inform the technical roadmap for developments related to ESA's Zero Debris Approach;
• Support the Office in the tasks related to the adoption of the new ESA's Space Debris Mitigation Standard.

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:

• Knowledge of the space debris issue and related mitigation guidelines is an asset 
• Knowledge of space debris tools and database systems is an asset