Internship Opportunity in the Directorate of Navigation.
ESA is an equal opportunity employer, committed to achieving diversity within the workforce and creating an inclusive working environment. We therefore welcome applications from all qualified candidates irrespective of gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, beliefs, age, disability or other characteristics. Applications from women are encouraged.
Location Noordwijk
Our team and mission
This position is based at the European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC) - Noordwijk, Netherlands
LEO-PNT is an In Orbit Demonstration project within the FutureNAV Programme of ESAโs Directorate of Navigation. This project includes includes the definition, development, launch, operations, and experimentation of a reduced constellation of In-Orbit Demonstration satellites in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) for demonstrating innovative Positioning, Navigation and Timing (PNT) services, as complement and augmentation of existing Global Navigation Satellites Systems (GNSS) such as Galileo and GPS. LEO-PNT encompasses space, ground and user technologies and services, and aims to demonstrate capabilities and that would serve to meet the future challenging user demands on PNT domain and accelerate the readiness of European industry in this domain. LEO-PNT aims to adopt โNew Spaceโ approaches for a fast-track implementation.
Some of the possible advantages of LEO-PNT is enabling faster high-accuracy positioning, enhanced services in harsh environment, more robust PNT services, geometry and frequency diversity, additional PNT data and 2-way PNT links. Those features would support a wide range of applications in different market sectors / verticals, including for instance, autonomous vehicles โ road / UAVs - and digital mobility in general, railway, maritime, critical infrastructure, 5G/6G networks, Internet-of-Things, among others.
The LEO-PNT Project Team is responsible of the definition and implementation of the In Orbit Demonstration and the identification of directions, conclusions and lessons-learned towards a future European LEO-PNT operational system.
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: Autonomous orbit keeping in LEO-PNT constellation
LEO-PNT requires large constellation 250+ satellites and low cost operations, so autonomous maneuvers for orbit keeping and collision avoidance are paramount, the activity should study how to adopt the concept of autonomous maneuvers on-board to stay within a predefined space corridor in the specific conditions of a LEO-PNT constellation:
- Exploitation of very precise on-board orbit determination and time
- Trade-off between infrequent maneuvers vs continuous small maneuvers (e.g. chemical vs electrical propulsion)
- Impact to navigation service provision
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2) Topic 2: LEO-PNT Constellation Design Simulation Tools Development
The LEO-PNT final concept will require the use of a large constellation of satellites in LEO orbits. The design of this concept involves multiple complex trade-off that shall be simulated. The activity will include the development of a system simulator (typically in JAVA with Orekit libraries) modeling the GNSS constellations (MEO and LEO), the Signal In Space and the Navigation Filters. This simulator shall support system trade-off for the consolidation of the specification for the full constellation deployment.
The activities will include:
A) Development of Flight Dynamics Simulator, simulating GNSS constellation and GNSS user
B) Integration of Signal In Space
C) Modeling of Navigation filters (for LEO-PNT constellation and for ground users)
D) Contribution to constellation systems level trade-offs:- Constellation architecture trade-off
- Deployment/launch strategy trade-off
- Systems reliability trade-off
- Orbit control strategies and specifications trade-off
- Systems availability trade-off (typically driving propulsion systems selection)
All trade-off shall include technical and programmatic (typically schedule and cost) elements.
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3) Topic 3: AI for LEO-PNT space system engineering
LEO-PNT is a fast-growing trend and large constellation with complex system engineering tasks is expected for the definition of an operational system. The current approach for system space engineering requirement generation and tailoring of existing standard relies on human work with inheritance requirement inconsistency, duplications, requirement misunderstanding, etc. The work should assess the possibility to exploit generative Artifical Intelligence (AI) to write and check space system engineering requirements for radio navigation systems. At the same time, AI can be used to support the use of existing standard such as ECSS (e.g.: asking dialogue questions to check which ECSS requirement should be used or to extract specific information without knowing exactly where the information is, etc).
Behavioural competencies
Result Orientation
Operational Efficiency
Fostering Cooperation
Relationship Management
Continuous Improvement
Forward ThinkingEducation
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 masterโs 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:
- Experience on the use of mathematical and engineering packages and programming languages for scientific and technical computing, such as Python, Java, STK, Matlab/Octave/Scilab is recommended
- Knowledge and background in orbital mechanics, flight dynamics and radionavigation is an asset
2) Topic 2:
- Experience on the use of mathematical and engineering packages and programming languages for scientific and technical computing, such as Python, Java, STK, Matlab/Octave/Scilab is recommended
- Knowledge and background in orbital mechanics, flight dynamics, Kalman filtering and radionavigation is an asset
3) Topic 3:
- Experience on the use of mathematical and engineering packages and programming languages for scientific and technical computing, such as Python, Java, STK, Matlab/Octave/Scilab is recommended
- Knowledge and background in machine learning/AI and radionavigation is an asset
Other information
For behavioural competencies expected from ESA staff in general, please refer to the ESA Competency Framework.
If you require support with your application due to a disability, please email contact.human.resources@esa.int.
Internships can take place remotely, on-site or partially on-site depending on the pandemic situation, and in line with the relevant Establishmentโs policy (e.g. possible Green Pass requirement) applicable at the time of starting the internship.
Please note that applications are only considered from nationals of one of the following States: Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. Nationals from Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia and Slovenia, as Associate Member States, or Canada as a Cooperating State, can apply as well as those from Bulgaria, Croatia and Cyprus as European Cooperating States (ECS).