Internship title: 3D Engines for Satellite Simulators

SIMULUS is a framework for the development of satellite simulators (SATSIM). It was developed at the European Space Agency to streamline and speed up the development of Satellite Operational Simulators, used to train the Flight Control Teams that operate spacecrafts. SIMULUS is operated by EUMETSAT Flight Control Teams and maintained by the Monitoring &Control Applications and Tools Competence Area (MCAT) which is part of the Satellite Ground Segments Division.

The internship focuses on prototyping the integration of advanced 3D visualization engines—Panda3D, Babylon.js, Blender, CadQuery, and Unreal Engine—into SATSIM, moving beyond current hierarchical tree, table, and plot-based displays. The intent is to provide a top-down, real-time, interactive visual representation of a satellite and its subsystems, each reflecting its simulation status in a rich 3D environment. This will allow also FCTs to navigate S/C documentation, FDIR etc when preparing scenarios.

After an initial period of familiarisation with EUMETSAT and the particularities of EUMETSAT’s satellite simulators, the trainee should go through the following steps:

• Review existing EUMETSAT’s Satellite Simulators technical documentation;
• Review existing EUMETSAT’s Software Development and Systems Engineering practices documentation (including familiarisation with operational procedures and techniques);
• Generate, in coordination with the different Flight Control Teams, a set of operational and non-operational scenarios in order to produce user and system requirements which will serve as technical specification for the visualisation tools;

• Generate the required Software code for the advanced 3D visualization engines ensuring that user and system requirements are fulfilled;

• Integrate the developed system in the MCAT AIV environments and ensure that non-regression testing is properly defined;
• Verify and validate, in coordination with the different Flight Control Teams, the system and user requirements using operational scenarios;
• Evaluate the performance of such systems under the different scenarios;
• Generate corresponding reports and Technical Notes Generate along with a final technical report.

• Have the ability to work effectively in English;
• Be computer literate;
• Be intrinsically motivated and curious about the internship subject;
• Be able to work independently and collaboratively;
• Have the ability to take the initiative in researching ideas;
• Have the ability to collect, collate, conceptualize and present information clearly.

Additional advantageous requirements:

• First experience in either C, C++, Python and Groovy;
• Some understanding of Software development and architectures;
• Some understanding of Space Systems Engineering;
• Some understanding of Spacecraft Engineering;
• First experience in reading and assessing technical documentation.