Intern in the Space Safety Programme

Intern in the Space Safety Programme - Planetary Defence Office - Bringing Lost Asteroids Back

Job Requisition ID: 21073

Date Posted: 1 November 2026

Closing Date: 30 November 2026 23:59 CET/CEST

Publication Method: External Only

Type of Appointment (learn more):

Directorate: Operations

Workplace: Frascati, IT

Location: ESRIN, Frascati, Italy

Our team and mission

The ESA Space Safety Department takes care of all potential hazards and threats from space or in space, which can impact human activities, infrastructure, or related applications. The spectrum of tasks ranges from gathering the basic understanding of space hazards originating from our Sun, from human space debris, or from asteroids potentially colliding with the Earth. It also addresses basic approaches to mitigate these hazards and to implement space systems end-to-end in a sustainable and eco-compatible way. Moreover, several corner stone missions are underway to demonstrate basic methods of space weather forecasting, asteroid deflection and active space debris removal from orbit.

In execution of these tasks, the Space Safety Department has the following entities:

• Mission Implementation Division (OPS-SM)
• COSMIC Project Manageent Office (OPS-SC)
• Space Weather Office (OPS-SW)
• Planetary Defence Office (OPS-SP)
• Space Debris Office (OPS-SD)
• Clean Space & Circular Economy Office (OPS-SY)
• Frequency Management Office (OPS-SF)
• Programme Coordination Office (OPS-SX)

The Planetary Defence Office (PDO) is addressing the “…prediction and detection [of] the potential impact of a near-Earth object”. Concerning the information needs for NEO monitoring, the following are defined:

• knowledge of the current and future positions of all NEO objects above a given size threshold or risk level, in particular their minimum fly-by distance to the Earth and time of this event;
• maintain awareness of collision risks with the Earth;
• access to verifiable, dependable, timely data with integrity and known accuracy.

The top-level Office tasks are:

• Issue NEO impact warnings and news releases.
• Provide direct access to data in the NEO database.
• Provide access to data in the NEO database available only via registration.
• Perform additional observations.
• Provide high priority information.
• Provide educational and outreach material.
• Provide user tools.

The PDO is structured along three vertical pillars differentiating following activity area:

• Observation;
• information provision;
• mitigation.

You can see following domains of the department's expertise:

• Ground Station Engineering;
• flight Dynamics and Mission Analysis;
• mission Operations Data Systems Engineering;
• navigation Support;
• multi-Mission Infrastructure – Ground Segment Integration and Testing.

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

Field(s) of activity for the internship

Each year, thousands of asteroids are discovered, but many are observed only for a short period before becoming difficult to locate again. At the same time, large archives of astronomical observations contain many unlinked detections that may correspond to previously observed objects. Connecting these observations can improve orbital knowledge and support the recovery of poorly observed asteroids.

In this internship, you will contribute to the development of a software tool to automatically search for asteroid identifications within existing observational databases. The project will focus on building a robust and efficient pipeline that compares known asteroid predictions against large collections of observations and highlights promising candidate matches for further analysis.

You will contribute to the design, implementation and validation of the pipeline, using real astronomical data and modern orbit analysis techniques. The final outcome will be a prototype tool capable of running automatically and supporting daily asteroid identification activities.

You will have the opportunity to:

• Develop software components for the automated processing of asteroid observation data;
• implement methods to search large observational databases for candidate identifications;
• evaluate and rank potential matches using orbital uncertainty information;
• validate the performance of the pipeline using historical asteroid observations;
• contribute to the development of an operational prototype suitable for integration into existing asteroid-monitoring activities.

Through this internship, you will learn:

• How asteroid observations are used t