Exotrail is expanding its spacevan™ service around Earth in LEO to include Rendez-vous and Proximity Operation. To achieve it, our team needs a precise and efficient multi-satellite simulator that models the environment in space for both design of the spacecraft and validation before flight with hardware in the loop. Today, our In-Orbit-Services team is looking for a GNC intern to design and build a GNC simulator based on Matlab/Simulink. The internship is expected to last 6 months. The start date would ideally be from early march to end april 2025.

Your job will be to define and implement a GNC simulator of the spacevan™ based on our current spacecraft architecture and with the help of Matllab/Simulink software. This simulator will be analyzed to compare the performance in terms of accuracy, efficiency, and agility with our current simulator.

During the internship, you will be under the supervision of the spacedrop™ expert and you will be in close contact with engineers from spacedrop™ teams. You will work on several tasks including:

📌 Define an architecture of the simulator based on our spacecraft architecture.

📌 Produce a development plan with key features to develop.

📌 Development of relative sensor, actuator and environment model.

📌 Development of GNC algorithms apply to RPO use case.

📌 Cross-validation with other existing GNC simulator.

You will be joining a dynamic and motivated team based in the city centre of Toulouse. We accord great importance to freedom, autonomy, and responsibility. You will benefit from the support of all the team in spacecraft engineering.

Preferred Experience 💁‍♀️

To complete this internship, Exotrail is looking for a young engineer with a solid background in GNC, control theory, space mechanics and spacecraft engineering. A proactive attitude and a high degree of autonomy are also expected. Interest or previous experience with the following are appreciated:

GNC/AOCS
Automation loops for spacecraft
Matlab/Simulink
Spacecraft system engineering
Relative dynamics

A friendly attitude and team spirit are appreciated.

You like working in a changing and challenging environment. You enjoy working in a team, bringing in new ideas and debating with your colleagues to move the project forward. You are an action-oriented person, and you want to bring agility to space and develop new services based on high-level technologies.

About our recruitment process 🤝

We are committed to recruiting the right people for the right job regardless of your private background.

We meet at least one times in order to give you a better idea of what it's like to work at Exotrail:

Technical interview with your future mentor: you will learn more about the position and the required qualifications.
Management interview with GNC team lead: you will learn more about Exotrail’s value and vision.

Department: In-Orbit Services
Role: Other
Locations: Toulouse