Intern in the Navigation Support Office in Darmstadt bei European Space Agency

Our team and mission

This position is based at the European Space Operations Centre (ESOC) - Darmstadt, Germany

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 of Operations 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 particular in the Management Council of the Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems (CCSDS).

Under the direct authority of the Ground Systems Engineering and Innovation Department, the Navigation Support Office is in charge of and coordinates all activities related to the provision of support to projects requiring satellite based navigation expertise, especially covering the area of Precise Orbit Determination, including satellite formation flying and constellations, provision of geodetic- and time-reference for ESA from an operational viewpoint. In addition, the Navigation Support Office is in charge of and coordinates all activities related to development and operations of the associated OPS satellite based navigation facilities. It further promotes innovation in this field of expertise for ground segment applications by participating in scientific and technical networks in Europe and worldwide and conducts leading edge research and technology activities in its domain.

For further details, interested candidates are encouraged to visit: Building infrastructure on Earth to support satellites in Space

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: Support to Development of Visualization software for Precise Navigation

The area of precise navigation requires nowadays more and more that the raw data (e.g. GNSS observations in real time and also none real time, Satellite Laser Ranging observations, Very Large Baseline Interferometer, etc.), the process data and analyzed data as well as the results of the data processing (e.g. Precise Orbit Determination) will have to be visualized in 2/3D manner in order to understand the data processing and also the obtained results in a much better way. The Navigation Support Office has identified the key requirements, which are needed for the development of a dedicated visualization software, that should cover the Navigation Support Office needs related to visualization, ranging from simple 2D plots to complex 3D real time animations.

As an intern, you will support the further development of the Navigation Support Office visualization software. The support for the visualization software development should include the definition and testing of interfaces, development of specific test cases, documentation of specific test cases, validation of user manual and feedback to software development team. The learning areas comprise, experience in cooperation of different teams with a software development project, d