Young Graduate Trainee for Space Debris

The Space Debris Office is a part of the Space Safety Office in the Directorate of Operations and constitutes the focal point for all ESA space debris activities.

The Office is coordinating the Agency’s space debris and meteoroid research activities and is responsible for all space debris operational and analysis services in support of ESA missions and ESA cooperation at inter-agency level. Its work is based on a large set of operational and scientific analysis software that is developed, maintained and operated under its control.

The related activities cover:

• characterisation of the space debris environment and its evolution

• impact risk analysis

• space debris mitigation

• collision risk prediction and collision avoidance manoeuvre planning

• re-entry forecasts and re-entry risk predictions

• maintenance of a database of about 50,000 objects in space

Current activities also cover providing expert support to ESA’s Clean Space Initiative which encompasses, besides activities in the areas of eco-design and green technologies, technological development and studies in the areas of space debris mitigation and remediation (active removal of space debris objects). Furthermore, the Office has a key role in leading all space debris activities under ESA’s Space Situational Awareness (SSA) Programme and its evolution into the proposed Space Safety Programme.

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

You will be involved in activities in analyses of the status and future evolution of the space debris environment and will support related activities under the Space Safety Programme. You will be assigned to work on the analysis of mitigation and remediation techniques, evaluation of new concepts and the development and application of the necessary means to verify and qualify such concepts. You will have the opportunity to be involved in operational activities such as collision avoidance and re-entry predictions. You will attend regular team meetings and support the coordination of activities within a group of experts on space debris matters within the scope of debris monitoring.

You will update existing analysis S/W and underlying databases (e.g. ESA’s DISCOS database providing the information underlying re-entry prediction and collision avoidance). With that work you will contribute to the improvement of the capabilities of the operational environment and to the verification of the debris mitigation measures for ESA missions.

You will work in a small team on the activities described above, coordinated by the Office, and will have the opportunity to actively contribute to on-going projects and research activities, develop new tools and present results to an international community.

You should have just completed, or be in the final year of a university course at Master's level (or equivalent) in a technical or scientific discipline.

You should have a good knowledge of orbital mechanics and mathematics in general, should be familiar with UNIX/LINUX operating environments, and with scientific programming (e.g. programming in FORTRAN or Python). A good experience in system and software engineering, a spirit for defining, organising and following up study work and proven documentation skills will be considered as an asset, as well as basic knowledge in project management.

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.

You should demonstrate good interpersonal skills and the capacity to work both independently and as part of a team.

During the interview your motivation and overall professional perspective/career goals will also be explored.