Young Graduate Trainee in Earth swing-by Anomaly

Young Graduate Opportunity in the Directorate of Operations

ESA is an equal opportunity employer, committed to achieving diversity within the workforce and creating an inclusive working environment. We therefore welcome applications from all qualified candidates irrespective of gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, beliefs, age, disability or other characteristics. Applications from women are encouraged.

This post is classified F1 on the Coordinated Organisations’ salary scale.

Location

ESOC, Darmstadt, Germany

Our team and mission

The Flight Dynamics Division is responsible for providing mission analysis and flight dynamics operations support to ESA missions in the fields of orbit determination, manoeuvre optimisation, GNC monitoring and commanding. This includes several interplanetary missions (e.g., Bepi Colombo, Juice, Solar Orbiter), astronomy missions at the Sun-Earth Lagrange points (e.g., Gaia, Euclid) and Earth orbit missions (Sentinels fleet). The support covers the entire mission life cycle, comprising design, development, implementation and validation of SW tools, mission preparation and critical and routine operational activities.

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

Field(s) of activity/research for the traineeship

The main field of the activity is to investigate what is referred to as the “Earth swing-by anomaly”. The anomaly is that – in contrast to the theory - the incoming asymptotic velocity was observed to not match the outgoing asymptotic velocity by a small, but detectable difference.

The anomaly has been observed at Rosetta’s first Earth swing-by and at various Earth swing-by’s that were performed by NASA operated spacecraft. Surprisingly, the anomaly has not been observed at every Earth swing-by’s and it has never been observed at swing-by’s at other planets than Earth. There have been quite a few attempts within the science and engineering community to find an explanation for that anomaly but to date without success.

One possible explanation of the anomaly is a shortcoming in the underlying algorithms that are used in the deep-space navigation software. The purpose of this activity is to use the new navigation software used at ESOC which is based on the GODOT astrodynamics common infrastructure, to reproduce the anomaly and to potentially find the root cause.

In order to do so you will have to perform the following tasks:

• you will familiarise with the literature on the Earth swing-by anomaly;
• you will familiarise with the background and usage of the deep-space orbit determination software used at ESOC;
• you will restore the historic data for all Earth swing-bys of ESA spacecraft (5 to date);
• you will configure the new orbit determination software to process that data and check whether the observed results in flight can be reproduced with the new software;
• you will - depending on the outcome of the previous point - analyse different ways to attempt finding the root cause of the anomaly.

Technical competencies

Knowledge of relevant technical domains

Relevant experience gained during internships/project work

Breadth of exposure coming from past and/or current research/activities

Knowledge of ESA and its programmes/projects

Behavioural competencies

Result Orientation

Operational Efficiency

Fostering Cooperation

Relationship Management

Continuous Improvement

Forward Thinking

Education

You should have just completed, or be in the final year of your Master’ s degree in engineering, physics, mathematics or a related field.

Additional requirements

You should have good interpersonal and communication skills and should be able to work in a multicultural environment, both independently and as part of a team.

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.

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

Other information

For behavioural competencies expected from ESA staff in general, please refer to the ESA Competency Framework.

For further information on the Young Graduate Programme please visit: Young Graduate Programme and FAQ Young Graduate Programme

At the Agency we value diversity and we welcome people with disabilities. Whenever possible, we seek to accommodate individuals with disabilities by providing the necessary support at the workplace. The Human Resources Department can also provide assistance during the recruitment process. If you would like to discuss this further please contact us email contact.human.resources@esa.int.

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Please note that applications are only considered from nationals of one of the following States: Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. Nationals from Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia and Slovenia, as Associate Member States, or Canada as a Cooperating State, can apply as well as those from Bulgaria, Croatia and Cyprus as European Cooperating States (ECS).

According to the ESA Convention, the recruitment of staff must take into account an adequate distribution of posts among nationals of the ESA Member States*. When short-listing for an interview, priority will first be given to candidates from under-represented Member States*.

In accordance with the European Space Agency’s security procedures and as part of the selection process, successful candidates will be required to undergo basic screening before appointment conducted by an external background screening service.

*Member States, Associate Members or Cooperating States.