The ESA 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 cornerstone missions are underway to demonstrate basic methods of space weather forecasting, asteroid deflection and active space debris removal from orbit.

Duties and Responsibilities

In execution of these tasks, the Space Safety Office has the following entities:

• Space Weather Office (OPS-SW);
• Planetary Defence Office (OPS-SP);
• Space Debris Office (OPS-SD);
• Clean Space Office (OPS-SC);
• Frequency Management Office (OPS-SF).

Space Weather Office is responsible for developing the ESA Space Weather System that allows nowcasting and forecasting space weather, i.e., the enormous eruptions in the Sun that impact the environment everywhere in our solar system. When these eruptions hit the Earth, they can cause major damage to the infrastructure on the surface, damage satellites and endanger the health of the astronauts in space. Geomagnetic storms triggered by solar events can cause blackouts in power grids, disturb satellite navigation and communication, and disturb aviation, transport, and many other functions that we are used to in our daily lives. Energetic particles from solar events can also damage space probes that we have sent to other planets in the solar system. This is why the Space Weather Office is developing space weather forecasting capability to mitigate the effects. The Space Weather Office is also responsible for the development and implementation of satellite missions for space weather monitoring to enable space weather services to the users.

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

Field(s) of activity for the internship

The topic of the internship: Space Weather Mission Performance Simulation

ESA is developing an enhanced Space Weather Sensor System to provide data for forecasting and to monitor Space Weather effects. Due to the asymmetry and complexity of Earth’s magnetosphere, the involved particle environment and its dynamics, it is necessary to capture the state of the magnetic field and the particle distribution in a sufficiently large number of sampling points around the Earth, such that it allows state-monitoring and modelling of the involved processes with sufficient accuracy and timeliness.

An important aspect of the realisation of observation systems for Space Safety is the need for high reliability, sufficiently long lifetime and low data latencies as the data will be used for operational purposes. For this, ESA is implementing multiple dedicated Space Weather missions, from nanosatellites to small satellites flying in various orbits,  as well as studying several additions to the measurement system. Your role would be to join the team and contribute to the analysis of their mission performance, through the use of different Space Weather models and instrument data. This analysis will provide insight into the optimisation of the mission design and operations. This highly important contribution will give you a chance to become familiar with the different steps of a space mission execution from early study phases to implementation and managing ongoing missions in space.

Competencies

Behavioural competencies

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

For more information, please refer to the ESA Core Behavioural Competencies guidebook.