Our team and mission

The Commercialisation and Innovation Team within the Directorate of Human & Robotic Exploration (HRE) spearheads cross-sectoral innovation initiatives aimed at fostering a commercial ecosystem in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) and the cis-lunar environment. 

Our initiatives focus on promoting the industrial use of automated and crewed platforms in LEO for research and applications, as well as accelerating the utilization of space resources to support sustainable space exploration. Additionally, we collaborate with the ESA Directorates of Navigation and Telecommunications to deliver the Moonlight initiative, which aims to establish commercial lunar communication and navigation services. 

To achieve these objectives, we have established the Business in Space Growth Network (BSGN) Industry Accelerators in key market sectors such as Sustainable Food, Advanced Materials and In-Space Manufacturing, Health, and Space Resources. These Accelerators provide support to industrial users of automated and crewed infrastructures in LEO and assist companies in developing services along the value chain of space resource utilisation. 

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

Field(s) of activity for the internship

Topic of the internship: Lunar Communication & Navigation User Missions

The European Space Agency is developing, through the Moonlight commercial initiatives, a lunar communication and navigation infrastructure through two missions: Lunar Pathfinder (“Generation 1”), establishing an initial service with a short-term availability, and LCNS (Lunar Communication and Navigation System – “Generation 2”), bringing a higher performance and more comprehensive service on a longer term. A third generation infrastructure is also in preparation to sustain a more ambitious deployment of a Solar System Internet, the internship focusing on the Moon component.

Multiple missions will make use of those services, ranging from Rovers to Landers, Ascenders, Bases, Orbiters either in Low Lunar Orbit or at higher altitude (NRHO/Lagrange points). The communication and navigation services are built according to a new set of standards that aim at fitting Lunar and Mars incoming networks through LunaNet, with active participation of ESA, NASA and JAXA and many more stakeholders.

As an intern in the Commercialisation and Innovation Team (HRE-FC), you will be:

• Evaluating and consolidation the Business Case for Moonlight, going from the high-level Lunar market views to the actual system-level and service-level requirements from those missions to actually assess the capability of the Moonlight spacecrafts to service those missions and down-select the real market reach of the programme. This activity also helps inform about the orientations to provide in the development phase of those missions and consolidate the roadmap to the next generation of Lunar infrastructure missions;
• Supporting the definition, implementation, and promotion of commercial opportunities in space exploration in an effort to grow the emerging Lunar Economy in the specific field of Lunar communication and navigation with a realistic assessment of actual end-to-end capabilities of the systems;
• In the framework of the Moonlight Programme, supporting the development of potential use cases for the utilisation of Lunar Pathfinder (in the short/medium-term) and Lunar Communication and Navigation Services (LCNS) (in the medium/long-term). This will involve supporting third parties’ entities interested in developing commercial solutions that will make use of the Lunar Pathfinder and/or LCNS by helping them mature the underlying business cases and direct them towards the most suitable funding opportunities available at ESA.

This internship is primarily about telecommunication and system engineering to support the elaboration and consolidation of the definition of use-cases and facilitate the on-boarding of future users. This will include more particularly:

• Understanding and elaborating the Concepts of Operations of Users to driving specific requirements to the service to be delivered (mission phases, orbits, latencies, availabilities, criticality, volumes, data types);
• Understanding and elaborating the engineering properties of the Lunar Missions including System to Mission Analysis, Operations, Communication and Navigation aspects;
• Proofreading and support to the elaboration of technical documentation.

The activity will be held in close coordination with the Tutor and as part of the commercialisation and innovation team. The User Missions are involving multiple directorates within ESA, NASA and JAXA and other partner agencies (MBRSC, KORI, CSA, ISRO) or industries.

Support links:

• ESA - Lunar Pathfinder
• ESA - Lunar satellites 
• Artemis - NASA 
• LunaNet: Empowering Artemis with Communications and Navigation Interoperability - NASA 

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 studying at master’s level. In addition, you must be able to prove that you will be enrolled at your University for the entire duration of the internship.

Additional requirements

The working languages of the Agency are English and French. A good knowledge of one of these is required. Knowledge of another ESA Member State language is an asset.

During the interview, your motivation for applying to this role will be explored.

Knowledge and background in satellite system design, mission analysis, and general competences in communications and navigation engineering are an asset.

Good communication skills will be essential for the success of this internship.