ESA Graduate Trainee in Science Planning Evaluation for Planetary Missions

Our team and mission

ESA maintains a world-leading Science Programme with missions in heliophysics, planetary science, astrophysics and fundamental physics. Its mission is to 'Empower Europe to lead space science'. The Department for Science Operations and Office for Science Engagement and Oversight host together the scientists and engineers that oversee the space missions, from study to end of operations. It defines and develops the science operation systems for the missions and operates the missions in space, as well as archiving and curating their data during operations and beyond. Our main objective is to maximise the scientific output of ESA's space science missions for the benefit of humankind.

Planetary missions are multifaceted endeavours that aim to achieve numerous scientific objectives through diverse instrument payloads. The success of these mission hinges on the meticulous planning and execution of complex scientific observations, each with distinct requirements. The various instrument payloads often necessitate different spacecraft attitude strategies, all of which must be harmonised to maximise the scientific return of the mission. Science Operation Centres play a crucial role in balancing these often conflicting needs to devise a comprehensive strategy that meets the mission's scientific goals that can then be translated into an executable plan that complies with the operational constraints.

One of the main challenges in this process is managing the wide range of requirements, needs, and constraints. While Science Operation Centres are adept at handling such variability, the challenge lies in providing a set of metrics and information that accurately reflect how well the mission and instrument scientific objectives are being met. Furthermore, the past decade has witnessed rapid advancements in technologies and workflows, presenting additional challenges that all instrument teams and Science Operation Centres must navigate.

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

Field(s) of activity/research for the traineeship

As part of the traineeship, you will contribute to the ongoing preparation of the BepiColombo mission by fostering a comprehensive and collaborative approach to (a) the science assessment metrics for strategic planning, then (b) an extension of metrics relevant for the transition to plan implementation. While developing and adapting the necessary tools to evaluate the science return focusing on the immediate needs of BepiColombo, you will ensure that the infrastructure benefits the preparation of future planetary missions such as JUICE (i.e., Ganymede phase) and Envision. The anticipated tasks are as follows:

Within the BepiColombo Science Operation Scientist group

1. Assimilate the identified needs of BepiColombo Scientific metrics. Evaluate the required updates needed in the current SOC infrastructure and provide suggestions on the development to be done. It is anticipated to use the SPICE libraries and the Planetary Coverage tool. You will evaluate how this could be incorporated within an infrastructure that can easily update inputs coming from the mission project while being supported by the scientific community.

2. Implement the approved infrastructure. Priorities will be evaluated and refined in due time, although it is expected that science coverage metrics evaluating the completion of global mapping coverage by specific instrument and sensors will be the first to develop. Additionally, important scientific metrics will have to be developed regarding the targeting phase of the mission that are observing at high resolution the surface of the planet.

In support of the BepiColombo Science Operations Engineering group

3. Acquire sufficient knowledge of the BepiColombo science operations process to identify common metrics required both at strategic and at plan implementation level. This task involves understanding the BepiColombo Mission, planning processes, and tools to identify common metrics that are valid for assessing the science plan in support of decisions at both the strategic and implementation levels in the Science Operations Centre.

4. Implement extensions to the infrastructure to provide context for the detailed science planning activities. Based on the identified common metrics, extend the generated output to provide the operational context and to implement improvements based on feedback from the Science Operations Engineers.

In parallel to the previous tasks

Pursue a cross-mission approach to develop infrastructure with the JUICE and/or ENVISION projects. Due to the similarities with the global mapping and targeting campaigns on BepiColombo, the focus will be on the Ganymede phase of the JUICE mission. Depending on the current development status of ENVISION, the focus would be either on global mapping of some remote sensing instrument or targeting observations of the radar.

Technical competencies

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 should have just completed, or be in the final year of your master’ s degree in computer science or similar.

Additional requirements

You should have good interpersonal and communication skills and should be able to work in a multicultural environment, both independently and as part of a team. Previous experience of working in international teams can be considered an asset. Your motivation, overall professional perspective and career goals will also be explored during the later stages of the selection process. 

 You should have a good knowledge in Python 3.