Internship: Simulation of Debris Impacts on Satellites (m/f)

Description de l'offre

Internship: Simulation of Debris Impacts on Satellites (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. The new division is Europe's number one defence and space enterprise, the second largest space business worldwide and among the top ten global defence enterprises. It employs some 40,000 employees generating revenues of approximately €14 billion 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

A vacancy for an internship in Simulation of Debris Impacts on Satellites (m/f) has arisen within Airbus Defence and Space in Toulouse.

You will join the Engineering Products & Space Physics department.

Travelling with a velocity ranging from 5 to 60 km/s, collision with debris or meteoroids can potentially lead to catastrophic failure of spacecraft. Despite their small size, their high momentum allows them to burst through the structure and in orbit cases of battery perforations, fuel tank explosions or damaged solar panels have been reported.

In a context of quick growth of space debris and recent projects of mega constellation at polluted low earth orbit, accurate assessment of risk related to debris and meteoroids impacts have become critical to design new satellites.

AIRBUS Defence and Space relies heavily for this assessment on the Systema Debris application used and developed internally by the space physic team. The software is based on a framework that allows an accurate 3D representation of satellite geometry, pointing and orbit and is interfaced with debris and meteoroids population models. Accurate propagation of incoming particles in the satellite structure and equipment is performed with a ray tracing algorithm taking into account material response to high velocity impacts.

This internship will start in February 2017(subject to some flexibility).

Internships at Airbus Group

Profil recherché

Tasks & accountabilities

Within the space physic team, you will actively take part in the development of the Systema debris application.
Three main axes of development have been identified:

·  Implementation of new features: you will work on the implementation of new features to increase the scope of Systema debris: addition of new equation models, compatibility extension with new environment models, addition of a module allowing the user to optimise the design of shields and the placement of sensitive equipment,
·  Development of new hypervelocity equations: a test campaign to develop new ballistic equations is planned using a hypervelocity canon: you will work on test definition and result interpretation to drive new designs of shielding,
·  Optimisation: Simulation time is an important factor for a numerical tool. Optimisation of the ray tracing algorithm, notably by allowing multi-threading, has been identified as a major development in order to reduce computation times.

Required skills

We are looking for candidates with the following skills and experience:

·  in the 2nd year of a Master's degree or in the 5th year of university or engineering school,
·  good programming skills, preferably in C/C++ and python
·  good knowledge of Space Physics and Space environment,
·  good communications skills,
·  team player,
·  advanced level of English and intermediate level of French.