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 and to other ESA programs. 
The Department is furthermore responsible for the overall technical innovation and technical standardisation coordination for the ground segment. 

The Department is relying on the following domains of expertise: 

• Ground Station Engineering
• Flight Dynamics and Mission Analysis
• Mission Operations Data Systems Engineering
• Navigation Support
• Multi-Mission Infrastructure – Ground Segment Integration and Testing

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

 http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Operations/gse/Building_infrastructure_on_Earth_to_support_satellites_in_space

Field(s) of activity for the internship

You can choose between the following topics:

1) Topic 1: Mission Operations Ground Systems Security Engineering

Cybersecurity is growing to be more and more important in ground system engineering and spacecraft operations. It affects all layers of the mission operations infrastructure, from IT systems to software to communication protocols. This topic explores innovative approaches to improve the cybersecurity posture and security operations concepts for the mission operations ground system.  

Within the topic, possible identified areas of focus which may be agreed based on your interest and expertise, include: 

• DevSecOps processes, security policy orchestration and cloud native software security 
• Exploring and implementing security concepts in the ESOC SpaceSecLab, in support of future delay-tolerant networking and solar system internet including: 
• Secure key management and distribution 
• Inter-governmental public key infrastructures 
• Network security monitoring and threat modelling 
• Development and application of novel system security engineering frameworks and tools, including methods to map emerging space security standards and knowledge bases in support of mission and system security engineering, and interfacing with Model Based Systems Engineering tools 
• Extending and improving SpaceSecLab capabilities in support of safe, portable and reproducible environments for security penetration test and audit capabilities of representative space systems 
• Exploring applied Artificial Intelligence techniques for security monitoring capabilities, tailored to the mission operations ground segment context.

2) Topic 2: Future Ground Systems Engineering

The architecture of space mission ground systems is fundamentally changing as new requirements and new mission scenarios evolve.   

Two mission scenarios are particularly relevant in this respect: 

• Distributed mission operations ground segment systems: Some future missions will be composed of multiple assets controlled and operated by multiple entities/ control centers and principal investigators. To be able to operate these missions the monitoring and control application infrastructure needs to evolve into a distributed system, interconnecting multiple ground segments in a service-oriented architecture. This includes extending classical monitoring and control systems to operate distributed, exchanging with external, heterogeneous data sources, and end users that may possess their own dedicated systems. It is required to facilitate data exchange across various platforms and adhere to industry standards, ensuring seamless and secure interfacing with external users. Implementations will include integrating cloud technologies, leveraging advanced and secure data exchange standards, and utilizing message brokers to streamline communication processes;
• Multi-mission payload data processing capabilities: Developing architectures to effectively process the payload data of multiple missions in one system thereby exploiting synergies. Technological challengers here are around unified interfaces, efficient data processing and distribution, and cybersecurity. 

OPS-G maintains the Advanced Ground and Space Applications (AGSA) lab to trial new technologies and concepts in this domain. In this topic, you will investigate possible innovations to the mission operations software domain, in particular using the advanced capabilities available in the AGSA lab.

3) Topic 3: Information channels, knowledge sharing and SDE

OPS-GA runs many activities and provides several services to customers within ESA and beyond and we have the need to better reach our customers. The current approach is fragmented and focuses more on functionality than usability. The Systems Development Environment (SDE) is one of several examples of an area where we provide many services under one umbrella but lacking a user-friendly landing page. Another area is the analysis and representation of business data to generate valuable insights for business decisions and planning. This includes the use of business intelligence software such as PowerBI. With this internship we would like to explore ways to better reach out to our customers (information, events, announcements) and improve the visibility of our services in an appealing and user-friendly manner.

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.

Topic 1:

• Knowledge or academic specialization in the area of cybersecurity, secure software, and/or systems engineering is an asset;
• Familiarity with mainstream programming languages is an asset; 
• Knowledge or academic specialization in the area of applied AI for security is an asset for certain tasks; 
• Experience with space-related protocols such as the DTN bundle protocol or with building docker-based network testbeds and Linux knowledge in general are very beneficial for certain tasks. 

Topic 2: Knowledge or academic specialization in the area of system and/or software engineering and potentially innovation management is an asset. 

Topic 3: Knowledge or academic specialization in the area of digitalization and/or software engineering and potentially innovation management is an asset.