Intern in the Space Weather Office of ESA's Space Safety Programme

Our team and mission

This position is based at the European Space Operations Centre (ESOC) - Darmstadt, Germany

The ESA Space Safety Programme Office takes care of all potential hazards from space or in space, which can impact human activities on Earth or again in space. The spectrum of tasks ranges from gathering the basic understanding of space hazards originating from our Sun, from man-made space debris, or from asteroids potentially colliding with the Earth. It also addresses basic approaches to mitigate these hazards and to implement space systems end-to-end in a sustainable and eco-compatible way. Moreover, several corner stone missions are underway to demonstrate basic methods of space weather forecasting, asteroid deflection and active space debris removal from orbit.

In execution of these tasks, the Space Safety Office has the following entities:

• Space Weather Office (OPS-SW);
• Planetary Defence Office (OPS-SP);
• Space Debris Office (OPS-SD);
• Clean Space Office (OPS-SC);
• Frequency Management Office (OPS-SF).

Space Weather Office is responsible for developing the ESA Space Weather System that allow nowcasting and forecasting space weather, i.e., the enormous eruptions in the Sun that impact the environment everywhere in our solar system. When these eruptions hit the Earth, they can cause major damage in the infrastructure on the surface, damage satellites and endanger the health of the astronauts in space. Geomagnetic storms triggered by the solar events can cause blackouts in power grids, disturb satellite navigation and communication, disturb aviation, transport, and many other functions that we are used to in our daily life. Energetic particles from the solar events can also damage space probes that we have sent to other planets in the solar system. This is why the Space Weather Office is developing space weather forecasting capability to mitigate the effects. The Space Weather Office is also responsible for the development and implementation of the satellite missions for space weather monitoring to enable the space weather services to the users.

Candidates interested are encouraged to visit the ESA website: http://www.esa.int

Field(s) of activity for the internship

Topic of the internship: Space Weather Mission Performance Simulation

ESA is developing an enhanced Space Weather Sensor System to provide data for forecasting and to monitor Space Weather effects. Due to the asymmetry and complexity of Earth's magnetosphere, the involved particle environment and its dynamics, it is necessary to capture the state of the magnetic field and the particle distribution in a sufficiently large number of sampling points around the Earth, such that it allows state-monitoring and modelling of the involved processes with sufficient accuracy and timeliness. 

An important aspect for the realisation of observation systems for Space Safety is the need of high reliability, sufficiently long lifetime and low data latencies as the data will be used in operational purposes. For this, ESA is implementing multiple dedicated Space Weather missions, from nanosatellite to small satellites flying in various orbits,  as well as studying several additions to the measurement system. Your role would be to join the team and contribute to the analysis of their mission performance, through the use of different Space Weather models and instrument data. This analysis will provide insight into the optimisation of the mission design and operations. This highly important contribution will give you a chance to become familiar with the different steps of a space mission execution from early study phases to implementation and managing ongoing mission in space.

Behavioural competencies

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

For more information, please refer to ESA Core Behavioural Competencies guidebook

Education

You must be a university student, preferably in your final or second-to-last year of a university course at Master’s level and you need to remain enrolled at your University for the entire duration of the internship.

Additional requirements

A good knowledge of English is required. Knowledge of another Member State language would be an asset.

Knowledge and experience in python programming and data analysis is an asset.