Our team and mission

This position is based at the European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC) – Noordwijk, Netherlands

The Directorate of Human and Robotic Exploration Programmes (D/HRE) is a Programme Directorate within the ESA matrix structure. Using a partnership between humans and robots, D/HRE is dedicated to exploring destinations in space where humans are already living and working – or will live and work in the future – for the purpose of scientific research, economic development, international cooperation and public inspiration.

One of the tasks of the LEO and Suborbital Utilisation Team is the end-to-end implementation of ESA Science Experiments on Sounding rocket missions. Sounding rockets are a unique mission platform for providing truly excellent levels of microgravity, with very low residual acceleration (~10-5 g), for studying phenomena with a longer timescale (typically 6 minutes) than ground or airplane platforms. Physical science and biology experiments can be conducted on board this platform. Sounding rockets constitute a completely independent European access to microgravity conditions and have significantly contributed to microgravity science research, resulting in many publications in scientific journals.

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

Field(s) of activity for the internship

Topic of the internship: System Engineering for ESA’s Science Experiments on Sounding Rocket Missions

As intern in the Low Earth Orbit and Suborbital Utilisation Team, your will participate to the design and development of scientific payloads to be flown on sounding rocket missions and investigate possible improvements to the sounding rocket system to increase the scientific return of the experiments.

By participating to the development of several sounding rocket payloads at different stages of development, you will learn the system engineering tasks related to microgravity payloads development, starting from the requirements definition in collaboration with the science teams, through the design phase in close contact with industry, to the requirement verification in preparation to the Acceptance Review.

Being part of the Low Earth Orbit and Suborbital Utilisation Team, you will also have the opportunity to familiarise yourself with the integration and implementation process for payloads on the International Space Station.

Behavioural competencies

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

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

Education

You must be a university student, preferably in your final or second-to-last year of a university course at Master’s level and you need to remain enrolled at your University for the entire duration of the internship.

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.

Knowledge and background in aerospace and system engineering is an asset.