Internship / Planning Algorithm Design for Earth Observation Constellations (m/f)

Description de l'offre

Internship / Planning Algorithm Design for Earth Observation Constellations (m/f)

Airbus Defence & Space Toulouse (ex Astrium SL)

Airbus Defence and Space is a division of Airbus Group, formed by combining the business activities of Cassidian, Astrium and Airbus Military. This new division is the leading aerospace and defence company in Europe, it represents the second largest company in the space field and is among the ten best international defence companies. It employs some 40,000 people and records a turnover of approximately 14 billion euros per year.

Airbus Group is a global leader in aeronautics, space and related services. In 2015, the Group - comprising Airbus, Airbus Defence and Space and Airbus Helicopters - generated revenues of € 64.5 billion and employed a workforce of around 136,600.

Our people work with passion and determination to make the world a more connected, safer and smarter place. Taking pride in our work, we draw on each other's expertise and experience to achieve excellence. Our diversity and teamwork culture propel us to accomplish the extraordinary - on the ground, in the sky and in space.

Description of the job

Airbus Defence and Space, Space Systems, is the European leader in the field of optical Earth Observation systems. It is the pioneer company responsible for the development of the first Earth Observation space systems in Europe, starting with the SPOT family. Since this time, it has led the major European developments in those fields, through programmes such as METOP, ERS, ENVISAT, HELIOS, PLEIADES and CSO. This experience is now applied on export turnkey programs such as SSOT, VNREDSat, DZZ-HR, involving systems with a few metres' resolution. This evolution led Airbus D&S to develop a strong expertise in Mission Planning through the Earth Observation Mission Chain Department (TSOTU3).
The department has grown significantly in the past two years and now relies on about 75 engineers.

Subject:

The mission of Earth Observation satellites is to acquire data (image, radar acquisition, etc.) in response to requests coming from various users.

Mission planning at a glance:

·  Mission planning consists in computing the set of actions to be performed by the satellite at all times, according to the request properties and the systems' limitations: kinematics, on-board memory, download capacity, etc.
·  Mission planning is therefore a constrained optimisation problem with multiple objectives, one of them being to maximise the amount of data acquired while respecting system and user constraints.

In addition to the development of operational software (for Mission Planning Centres), several tools are being developed within the department to simulate and assess the performances of multi/mono Earth Observation (EO) systems.
Based on the satellite characteristics and the targeted acquisitions, these tools simulate the various stages of the mission chain: calculation of acquisitions opportunities followed by the elaboration of the mission plan and the download plans.

This internship will start on 1st March 2017 (subject to some flexibility).

Internships at Airbus

Profil recherché

Tasks & accountabilities

In the case of a large (typically >5 satellites) constellation of EO satellites, computing mission plans that benefit from the best of the space resources is a new challenge. The problematic of computing the mission plan for several satellites is called Collection Planning.
A first internship was conducted in 2016 in order to study and implement several algorithms solutions and compare them to the operational one.
This internship is an opportunity to go further on this study by implementing new solutions in a near-operational context. It is an opportunity to acquire knowledge in algorithms applied to space industry, as well as in satellites and ground segments that form Earth Observation missions.

After having familiarised yourself with the context of the internship, your tasks will include:

·  Understanding the context of collection planning
·  Conducting several assessments on the various algorithms proposed to solve collection planning
·  Designing and implementing new algorithms in simulation tools
·  Conducting trade-off for an operational solution.

Required skills

You are in the second year of a Master's degree or in the fifth year of an engineering school specialising in Aerospace Engineering.

You ideally have initial experience.

You have knowledge of:

·  Background in applied mathematics, algorithmic and statistics,
·  Software development skills (Java, C++, Matlab, Python),

And ideally:

·  Generic background in space systems and Earth Observation missions
·  Knowledge of orbital mechanics, attitude and orbit control systems.

You are a good team player and have excellent interpersonal skills.

English: negotiation level,
French: negotiation level.