Position Title: PAYLOAD ENGINEER

Duties

The candidate’s tasks can be subdivided in three main areas:

1. Support for design / development and operation of dedicated simulation / testing facilities for space exploration
2. Sustaining Engineering of PMM
3. Support to Development, Integration and operations of payloads to be installed on different space platforms (e.g. ISS, Space Rider)

Sustaining Engineering of PMM

The following main activities will be executed:

• Technical support for the preparation and management of PMM operations:
  • Check of the NASA ISS operation tools to verify the status of Flight Products (anomalies, Chits, EFNs), monitoring of the ISS Flight Plan/Crew Activities and analysis of PMM-related topics;
  • Participation in the MER Daily Tag-Up as ‘observers’ to become aware in real-time of any problems directly or indirectly concerning PMM, to verify the status of the actions in progress and to intervene, if requested, to make ALTEC’s point of view known;
  • Check and analysis of the telemetry data related to the PMM status and update of the PMM Staging log on a daily basis.
• Monitoring of the “performance” of the PMM module in orbit mainly in the following subsystems: Structure & Mechanisms (S&M), Environmental Control and Life Support System (ECLSS), Passive Thermal Control System (PTCS)
• Execution of dedicated analyses (thermal, structural, venting, …) upon request or following the identification of anomalies.

Support for development and operation of dedicated simulation / test facilities

• Support for the operation of Mars Terrain Simulator Facility (MTS) already available at ALTEC in support of Exomars mission, including the utilization, the maintenance management, and potential upgrading of its elements, such us the MTS Arena with its measurements modelling and ambient camera, the gravity compensator device, the tilting facility, the drilling and illumination facility. Support the development and implementation of Lunar Terrain Simulator Facility (LTS) and the Lunar Environment Facility (LES) in the frame of the Lunar Simulation and Mission Control Center (LS&MCC), that ALTEC is developing under Italian Space Agency contract to support demonstration, testing and validation of systems, subsystems and P/Ls to be used on the moon surface in different operational conditions.

Support to Development and Integration of payload on different space platform (e.g. ISS, Space Rider)

• Support for the design and development of experiments: this activity consists in supporting:
  • the PI/PD in the definition of the applicable requirements and the verification methods necessary for their closure, starting from the applicable documents that list the interface requirements with the space platform.
  • the main project reviews, (e.g. SRR, PDR, CDR, QR and FAR) and in the preparation of the technical project documentation (e.g. Design Definition Report, ADP…)
  • the PI/PD in the qualification of the payload: preparation of the test and verification program, specifications, procedures and test reports
• Support for engineering and mission integration and certification of experimental hardware, based on the needed documents;
• Support for on-board operations, including the preparation and execution of training or familiarization with the payload, the preparation of all operational products, the preparation and execution of BDC (Baseline Data Collection), Real-time on-console support for in-orbit operations from the ALTEC Mission Control Center, if necessary