Our team and mission

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

The Aerothermodynamics and Flight Vehicles Engineering Section provides engineering support to ESA's application directorates, focusing on research and technology (R&T), simulation, and testing activities in the areas of aerothermodynamics, fluid mechanics, flight physics, and flight vehicle engineering.
 
The Section offers expertise in high-speed vehicles, both vertical and/or horizontal flight, suborbital and/or orbital vehicles, space logistics vehicles, as well as vehicles designed for entry, descent, landing (EDL), and (re-)entry with reusable or demisable technologies.
As the technical focal point for flight vehicle architecture design, analysis, and assessment, the Section performs overall feasibility and viability assessments, as well as quick design iterations with the support of the necessary competences within the Directorate.
 
Additionally, the Section manages and operates facilities for Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD), visualisation, fluidics and flow-related hardware, and is responsible for the procurement and maintenance of tools for propulsion, aerothermodynamics, fluid mechanics, and flight physics modeling.

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

Field(s) of activity for the internship

Topic of the internship: Ablative-material response model and simulation tools for atmospheric re-entry 

A better understanding and modelling of ablation phenomena leads to more optimized heatshield designs, with enhanced safety margins to accommodate unforeseen re-entry conditions.
For destructive re-entries, understanding ablation helps in designing spacecraft and their components in such a way they will safely disintegrate and burn up in the atmosphere, reducing the risk of large debris reaching the Earth's surface. Research into ablation phenomena can lead to improved performance for non-destructive re-entries on one hand and facilitate the development of new design-for-demise solutions on the other.

You will review the governing equations and boundary conditions used to model the response of ablative materials subjected to a high-enthalpy flows. Then, you will analyze the state of the art in numerical modelling of ablation and erosion phenomena, including internal decomposition (pyrolysis, vaporization), gas-gas and gas-solid chemical interactions (combustion, cracking, coking), gas species transport (convection, diffusion), and solid morphology evolutions (internal density changes, surface ablation). Finally, you will run simulations to test internal tools (e.g., BLITZ).

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.

Knowledge and background in computational fluid dynamics (CFD), re-entry and programming languages (e.g. Python, C++) is an asset.