Planetary Defense Internship: Flyeye & NEO Simulations

EU Satellite Centre (SatCen); Frascati; On-site; EUR 8,900 - 13,000; Full time

Job summary

European Space Agency (ESA) invites university students to join the Near-Earth Object Coordination Centre observers team in Frascati, contributing to the Flyeye network's simulation and planning. You will adapt Sorcha, a survey simulator, to model Flyeye-1 and Flyeye-2, collaborating with LSST experts to refine observing strategies and network operation.

The internship provides hands-on experience with an open-source tool used by planetary defence and astronomy communities, plus exposure to

Qualifications

• You must be a university student, preferably in your final or second-to-last year of your Master’s degree.
• Enrollment at your university for the entire duration of the internship is required.

Responsibilities

• Review the architecture of the survey simulator and its LSST use.
• Build a Flyeye-specific configuration including telescope parameters, cadence, field footprint, and network geometry.
• Characterise the network's discovery performance.
• Run comparative simulations to test observing strategies (depth vs. sky coverage).
• Assess how Flyeye's coverage could best complement LSST.
• Model how Flyeye units can be operated together.

Skills

Python

Orbital mechanics

Data visualization

Scripting languages

Statistical analysis

Education

Master's degree in astronomy/astrophysics

Tools

NumPy

Pandas

Astropy

Job description

European Space Agency (ESA) invites university students to join the Near-Earth Object Coordination Centre observers team in Frascati, contributing to the Flyeye network's simulation and planning. You will adapt Sorcha, a survey simulator, to model Flyeye-1 and Flyeye-2, collaborating with LSST experts to refine observing strategies and network operation.

The internship provides hands-on experience with an open-source tool used by planetary defence and astronomy communities, plus exposure to