Intern in the Space Safety Programme Office

Our team and mission

The 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.

The Planetary Defence Office (PDO) is addressing the “…prediction and detection [of] the potential impact of a near-Earth object”. Concerning the information needs for NEO monitoring, the following are defined:

• knowledge of the current and future positions of all NEO objects above a given size threshold or risk level, in particular their minimum fly-by distance to the Earth and time of this event;
• maintain awareness of collision risks with the Earth;
• access to verifiable, dependable, timely data with integrity and known accuracy.

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: Monte Carlo method for asteroid impact monitoring

Near Earth asteroids could impact the Earth, posing a serious threat to people and infrastructure. It is therefore fundamental to accurately estimate their impact probabilities in order to correctly evaluate their hazard, communicate it to the public, and eventually take mitigation actions. Three different impact monitoring systems are currently operational: the ESA Aegis system (https://neo.ssa.esa.int/), the NASA Sentry system (https://cneos.jpl.nasa.gov/sentry/), and the CLOMON2 system by NEODyS (https://newton.spacedys.com/neodys/index.php?pc=0). The methods used in these impact monitoring systems revealed to be very effective. On the other hand, these methods are thought for scanning and processing the whole near Earth asteroids population on a daily basis, and therefore they necessarily rely on some assumptions to maintain a good computational efficiency. To treat special or pathological cases it is still useful to perform the impact assessment by using more accurate classical approaches, such as Monte Carlo techniques, despite they are typically more computationally expansive. That goal of the present activity is to implement Monte Carlo methods for impact monitoring and impact corridor of near Earth asteroids, to be integrated in the operational Aegis system as an additional tool. The software developed within this activity will be used by the NEO Coordination Centre team in future activities related to impact monitoring. 

2) Topic 2: Accurate determination of the H-G system for asteroids

Visual magnitude of asteroids at varying illumination angles is modelled by means of the so called H-G system. This system allows obtaining an approximation to the expected visibility of an asteroid when the relative position between the Sun, the Earth and the asteroid change wrt past conditions when the object was observed (e.g. at discovery). The model however is just an approximation due to several reasons: whenever an asteroid is observed one has to account for the effect of the light curve due to the rotation of the object and its shape, as well as the relative orientation to determine the visibility. Furthermore, the asteroid surface properties are of paramount importance to determine how the reflection of light will behave at different viewing angles. 

As an intern, you will therefore carry out the following activities:
1. Literature review on near Earth asteroids and their photometric description;
2. Review of the current photometric models;

Behavioural competencies

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

Education

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 master’s 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.

Educational knowledge:
1) Topic 1: Knowledge and background in orbital mechanics, near-Earth asteroids and related software tools and languages (Python, Fortran, ...) would be an asset.
2) Topic 2: Knowledge and background in orbital mechanics, near-Earth asteroids and related software tools and languages (Python, Fortran, ...) would be an asset.