Intern in the Ground Systems Engineering and Innovation Department

Our team and mission

The Ground Systems Engineering and Innovation Department is responsible for all the ground systems engineering and support activities required to support mission operations and implement innovation. The Department maintains and manages a full level of competences, technologies and services in all engineering disciplines related to ground systems, infrastructure, technology evolution and Engineering R&T and innovation. The Department provides expert support in these areas to the Directorate for all current and potential missions and leads, in the role of architect, ground systems evolution and innovation implementation in the infrastructure. The Department is furthermore responsible for the overall technical standardisation coordination for the ground segment, in the Management Council of the Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems (CCSDS).

The Optical Technologies Section at ESOC is developing technologies for optical ground stations, ranging from free-space optical communication over satellite laser ranging, space debris and near-Earth object surveillance to photonic frequency and timing distribution. Our mission is to be at the forefront of technological innovation and to transfer novel technologies to satellite operations.

For further information visit our web site: http://www.esa.int

Field(s) of activity for the internship

Topic: Study and development of advanced techniques for ESTRACK Frequency and Timing system monitoring

The generation and distribution of stable frequency and timing signals is a key need for Deep Space stations. These signals are generated by ultra-stable atomic clocks and distributed by a custom Ground station subsystem. Besides the signals' performance, the fundamental requirement is the reliability of such subsystem: each failure shall be quickly detected because it can impact the operation of the whole station. Different layers of monitoring are actually implemented. Anyway, many innovative techniques for monitoring timing data were developed and published by research groups in the last years.

The Internship activity will be focused on the study of future improvements of the actual system in such direction. As an intern, two macro tasks are envisaged for you:

• Study, trade-off, development and simulation of innovative algorithms for anomaly detection applicable to precise frequency and timing system data. The outcome of this task can be used as an input for an upgrade of the 2nd Gen ESTRACK Frequency and Timing system;
• Development of automatic telemetry analysis environment. The outcome of this task will make easier and smarter the use of the Legacy system data for monitoring and troubleshooting.

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.