Our team and mission

This position is based at the ESA Centre for Earth Observation (ESRIN) - Frascati, Italy

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 corner stone missions are underway to demonstrate basic methods of space weather forecasting, asteroid deflection and active space debris removal from orbit. 
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)

The Planetary Defence Office (PDO) is addressing the “…prediction and detection [of] the potential impact of a near-Earth object”. Concerning the information needs for NEO monitoring, the following are defined:

• knowledge of the current and future positions of all NEO objects above a given size threshold or risk level, in particular their minimum fly-by distance to the Earth and time of this event;  
• maintain awareness of collision risks with the Earth;  
• access to verifiable, dependable, timely data with integrity and known accuracy.

The top-level Office tasks are:  

• Issue NEO impact warnings and news releases; 
• Provide direct access to data in the NEO database;  
• Provide access to data in the NEO database available only via registration;
• Perform additional observations;
• Provide high priority information; 
• Provide educational and outreach material;
• Provide user tools.

The PDO is structured along three vertical pillars differentiating following activity areas:  

• Observation  
• Information Provision 
• Mitigation
   

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

Field(s) of activity for the internship

You can choose between the following topics:
 
1) Topic 1: Strewn field of impacting asteroids

The dynamics of small asteroids impacting the Earth is influenced by other effects than only gravitational ones, such as winds and atmospheric drag. In addition, they may also undergo fragmentation.  If the asteroid is larger than roughly one meter, the impact may also drop meteorites on the ground, as demonstrated by the recent events of 2023 CX1 and 2024 BX1. The area where meteorites land on the ground is called strewn field.   

The purpose of this internship is to develop models for the computation of ab initio strewn fields, i.e. using only the orbit determination from astrometry, without relying on fireball camera observations. Preliminary results obtained in [1] show that the ab initio approach can give reliable results for the purpose of meteorite search. One advantage of this approach is that a possible strewn field can be computed even without data from fireball camera, which cover only a limited part of Earth. The second advantage is that predictions of the impact location on the ground can be made prior to impact, without waiting to see the fireball, possibly making use of weather predictions. This has implications also from a civil protection point of view, in case the asteroid is predicted to impact over a populated area, and it would be of interest also for the Planetary Defence Office Mitigation Pillar. 

References:  

[1] Carbognani, Fenucci, Salerno, Micheli (2024): Ab initio strewn field for small asteroid impacts, Under review.

2) Topic 2: Simulation of NEOMIR images

NEOMIR (Near-Earth Object Mission in the Infrared) is the next cornerstone space mission of ESA’s Planetary Defence office. Its goal is to enhance the detection of potentially hazardous asteroids that could pose a threat to Earth. Operating from the 1st Sun-Earth Lagrange point, NEOMIR will use advanced infrared sensors to detect near-Earth objects (NEOs) that are difficult to spot from Earth due to their low phase angle: besides, NEOMIR will measure their thermal emission making possible to detect objects coming the  Sun direction, providing early warning of possible impact risks and giving more time for potential mitigation efforts. This mission is part of a broader effort to improve planetary defense and contribute to the global understanding of asteroid and comet populations in our solar system.  

A key element in the mission design is understanding how detector’s performance and behavior may affect object detection. The scope of this traineeship is to build an image simulator that will mimic as much as possible the expected behavior of NEOMIR’s MCT (mercury cadmium telluride) detectors, so that a proper assessment of its detection capabilities can be done.  

This can be done using a combination of two available software: a) SkyMaker, to construct a basic, noiseless image with sources in it and b) Pyxel, to add detector-related effects. Starting from a set of input sources, the trainee shall simulate images including various effects as a function of instrument’s performance and see how they affect the signal-to-noise ratio and sources’ detection. The trainee will also take part in meetings with industrial partners that are currently studying the NEOMIR mission, as well as interface with detectors experts and scientists.

References:

https://github.com/astromatic/skymaker

https://esa.gitlab.io/pyxel/

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.

For Topic 1:  

• Knowledge of Python and orbital mechanics is needed 

For Topic 2: 

• A good knowledge of Python is needed (mainly to work with Pyxel)  
• Knowledge of C++ language is a plus (in case SkyMaker source code needs to be investigated or changed)  
• Good understanding of MCT detectors is an asset