Internship - SE Budget Tool Development

Since its introduction, the CubeSat has managed to disrupt the space industry and has managed to come of age. It is now able to act as the necessary infrastructure for commercial companies wanting to offer data services and cost-effective platforms for various applications. We are looking for an intern to support with system engineering activities related to technical budget development, like power budget, mass budget and delta-V budget. The main focus of the assignment is to develop a new tool and/or improve the existing tooling for these budgets. It is expected that most time will be spent on the power budget, as this is a complicated budget requiring most improvements. Besides that, time can be spent on other budgets as stated below.

Power budget

For spacecraft and mission design, the power budget is an essential analysis to perform. ISISPACE has been working with an internally designed Excel based tool for multiple years. While the tool was fulfilling the project needs so far, several improvements have been identified that need to be implemented to ensure that the tooling is suitable for use for more complex missions. Firstly, it would need to be assessed whether it is worth it to improve the available tool, or whether it is better to start implementing a new tool. Afterwards, the improvements, or new tool, would need to be developed, followed by verification and validation activities. The following tasks are foreseen:

Your responsibilities include:

• Perform a requirements discovery for the power budget tool.

o   Identify the needs in terms of in- and output for the power budget tool.

o   Identify the needs in terms of integration with other SE tools.

o   Identify all aspects that impact the power budget.

• Selection of tool (improve existing tool or new tool).

• Develop or improve code for power budget calculations and visualization in the selected tool.

• Verify and validate the tool with available tooling and/or in-orbit satellite data.

• Reporting of activities.

Mass, data, delta-V, propellant, availability, reliability budgets

Other essential budgets that need to be made for most of our satellite missions are the mass, data, delta-V, propellant, availability and reliability budgets. For most of these budgets, templates are available, but improvements would be needed. The aim is also to use similar templates for most of these budgets. In discussion with the candidate, it can be decided on which budgets to focus. The following tasks are foreseen for each of these. On a high level, the same steps as for the power budget will be followed:

• Perform a requirements discovery.

• Selection of tool (improve existing tool or new tool).

• Development of tool.

• Verification and validation.

• Reporting

• Familiarity with commonly used tools (e.g. Python, Excel,…).

• Knowledge of orbital mechanics.

• Familiarity and affinity with satellite (sub)systems (preferred).

• Strong communication skills, verbal and in writing, in English.

• Good with planning, pro-active, accurate, able to cope with a dynamic environment

Duration and Preliminary Planning

This internship is an approximate 4 to 6 month full-time period supervised by ISISPACE in Delft. The following rough planning is applicable, but will be discussed with the candidate:

First month: Introduction to company, definition of assignment scope

Middle months: Support in system engineering activities focused on system budgets  

Last month: Reporting