Our team and mission

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

Under the direct authority of the Head of the Mechanical Department, the Structures, Mechanisms and Materials Division is responsible for all aspects related to all spacecraft structures, mechanisms (including tribology and pyrotechnic devices), materials (including related manufacturing and assembly processes, space environmental effects, cleanliness and contamination control) and associated computational and laboratory facilities.

The Structures Section TEC-MSS is in charge of all structural engineering aspects.

• Structural Design and Verification Methods / Tools;
• Static / Dynamics / Vibro-Acoustics;
• Crash / Impacts / Meteoroids Absorption Analysis;
• Damage Tolerance / Fracture Control / Health Monitoring;
• Fluid Structure Interaction (e. g. Sloshing);
• Launcher Coupled Dynamic Analysis;
• Demisability / Re-Usability;
• Thermo-Elastic distortion;
• High Stability / High Precision Structures;
• Active / Adaptive Structures;
• Inflatable and Deployable Structures;
• Launchers / Re-Entry (Hot Structures) / Planetary Landing Vehicles;
• Crew Habitation / EVA Suits.

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

Field(s) of activity for the internship

Topic of the internship: Spacecraft Structures design, development and testing.

In this position you will be assigned one or more specific tasks, which may include:

• Critical evaluation of design / analysis / verification of spacecraft or spacecraft instrument design concepts;
• Derivation of mechanical specifications (sine, quasi-static, random …) for the payload and the sub-systems of a spacecraft;
• Thermo-elastic distortion analysis of a spacecraft payload in operational environments (e.g. at cryogenic temperatures) and evaluation against payload dimensional stability performance requirements;
• Participation to spacecraft/instrument mechanical testing (quasi-static, sine, random, acoustic), and evaluation of test results;
• Participation to CDF (Concurrent Design Facility) studies for conceptual design of new missions (spacecraft, payloads, launchers);
• Damage tolerance evaluation of fracture critical systems, in particular for human-rated spacecraft and launcher systems;
• Topological optimization of spacecraft structural hardware with application to additive manufacturing methods;
• Hyper-velocity impact analysis to assess the performance of micro-meteoroid protection systems.

In performance of these assignments, it is expected that you will make use of specialist engineering software available in the Structures Section, including: NASTRAN, ABAQUS, VAOne, CATIA V6, PATRAN, Hyperworks, FEMAP, PRIMODAL, DynaWorks, OptiStruct, NASGRO.

These software tools will typically be used for analysis/modelling tasks including:

• Modal and frequency response analysis;
• Thermo-elastic distortion analysis;
• Vibro-acoustic analysis;
• Static (strength and stiffness) analysis;
• Spacecraft conceptual design and configuration modelling;
• Signal processing (test results evaluation);
• Topological optimization;
• Hyper-velocity impact analysis;
• Fatigue and crack growth analysis.

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.

Additional Requirements:

• Field of study should be in mechanical/aeronautical engineering;
• Experience with relevant engineering software tools would be an asset.