Student Aerospace Engineering, Communication Engineering, Electronic Engineering, Physics (w/m/d) - Optical Communication Payloads: Analysis for Sustainable Satellite Constellations

The optical communication group of DLR’s Institute of Communications and Navigation develops experimental laser communication systems for optical data links between airborne carriers such as airplanes or satellites and optical ground stations as well as demonstrator platforms for testbed system verifications. The system development covers several disciplines such as optics, mechanics, electronics and programming.

The successful applicant will support our team in the development of an analytical approach on the evaluation of LEO and GEO Satellite Constellation options. Foremost, she/he will perform tradeoff analysis and develops evaluation models for Mission costs, CapEx and OpEx, coverage, complexity, orbital pollution and environmental impact. Literature review on Satellite Optical Communication and Space System and Mission Design would conclude the theoretical part, which shall be followed by the development of evaluation models for the different aspects on programming languages such as MATLAB or Python, to assess the impact and the characteristics of different Satellite Constellation options.

It is an excellent opportunity to work in a cutting-edge topic, gain experience on Mission Design, and improve your engineering skills.

Tasks:

• Mission Drivers for Satellite Constellations identification
• programming of Python or Matlab evaluation tools
• Data Presentation