Internship: Feasibility study of spacecraft proximity operations demonstration missions

Internship Description 👨‍💻

Exotrail is expanding its spacevan™ capabilities towards rendezvous and proximity operations (RPO). Proximity operations are key technologies to be able to perform advanced in-orbit services and expand the Exotrail logistics services to spacecraft deorbitation, inspection, in-orbit mobility or even in-orbit manufacturing. To support those developments, Exotrail wants to demonstrate key technologies and gain operational experience through a step by step approach. This means that Exotrail is performing limited demonstrations as a secondary mission of its spacevan™ satellites that are to be launched during the next years to incrementally master proximity operations.

Exotrail is looking for a systems engineering intern talented in space mechanics and proximity GNC (Guidance, Navigation, and Control) to join our development team for 6 months. Your job will be to propose mission concepts and architecture that demonstrate key rendezvous technologies and leverage our current spacevan™ capabilities with respect to Exotrail development plan and product roadmap. The start date would ideally be February 2025.

During your internship, you will define RPO mission scenarios by considering the capabilities of the spacevan™ as well as a potential payload dedicated to the mission. Those mission scenarios will be analyzed to assess their technical interest, cost, and programmatic and technical feasibility.

During the internship, you will be under the supervision of the spacevan™ expert and you will be in close contact with engineers from spacedrop™ teams. You will work on several tasks including:

📌 Analyze the key enabler for RPO missions

📌 Define several concepts of mission for demonstration of key technologies or capabilities with the current spacevan™ architecture

📌 Integrate regulatory and technical constraints

📌 Define the high-level system architecture of the overall mission and demonstration payload

📌 Analyze the technological interest and the added value of such mission and its feasibility

📌 Perform trade-off to shortlist a few concepts of great interest to be investigated further

You will be joining a dynamic and motivated team based in downtown Toulouse. The development team operates following the agile method, allowing to progress at a fast pace with a customer-oriented approach. We value freedom, autonomy, and responsibility. You will benefit from the support of all the team in space dynamics and software development, our two areas of expertise in Toulouse. We also promote the culture of software craftmanship and rely on the principles of clean code.

Preferred Experience 💁‍♀️

To complete this internship, Exotrail is looking for an engineering student with a solid background in spacecraft systems engineering, space mechanics, and GNC. A proactive attitude and a high degree of autonomy are also expected. Interest or previous experience in the following fields are appreciated:

• Spacecraft systems engineering
• Space mechanics for proximity operations
• GNC/AOCS (Attitude and Orbit Control System)
• Spacecraft operations
• Python

A friendly attitude and a team spirit are appreciated.

You like working in a changing and challenging environment. You enjoy working as part of a team, contributing new ideas and debating with your colleagues to move the project forward. You are an action-oriented person, and you want to bring agility to space and develop new services based on high-level technologies.

About our recruitment process 🤝

We are committed to recruiting the right people for the right job regardless of your private background.

A technical interview with your future manager will be planned so that you will learn more about the position and the required qualifications.