Jobs
Vigil is a mission in the Space Safety Programme of the European Space Agency (ESA). It will be launched in 2031 into a heliocentric orbit and reach the L5 Lagrange point of the Sun-Earth system in 2035. Vigil will provide uninterrupted space weather measurements from a vantage point away from the Sun-Earth line, in order to improve the space weather services to protect critical Earth-based and space-based infrastructure. One of the cornerstone instruments aboard Vigil is the Joint coronal EUV Diagnostic Investigation (JEDI) led by the South-West Research Institute (USA). JEDI is a next-generation high-cadence, large-field-of-view extreme ultraviolet (EUV) imager to study the ground state of space weather – the solar wind – and space weather transient events (flares and coronal mass ejections, CMEs). JEDI will consist of two telescopes that will image the solar corona up to 3.2 solar radii, providing data both for operational space weather applications and for fundamental studies of the solar corona. The Royal Observatory of Belgium (ROB) is a Co-Investigator institute of the JEDI instrument contributing to the onboard software specifications, selection of the JEDI detectors, testing of the camera, on-ground calibration, and on-ground data processing software. The JEDI consortium includes partner institutes in the USA, Belgium, France, and Switzerland. In order to ensure the scientific and technological activities for JEDI, ROB is seeking to hire a JEDI scientist.
The Royal Observatory of Belgium seeks an Earth Observation scientist (F/M) for the Earth Climate Observatory Earth Explorer 12 space mission consolidation.
Solar Orbiter is ESA’s leading deep space solar observatory, orbiting the Sun in a highly elliptical orbit with a perihelion below 0.3 au. One of the cornerstone instruments onboard Solar Orbiter is the Extreme Ultraviolet Imager (EUI). Operating since 2020, EUI consists of 3 telescopes imaging the solar corona at the highest spatial resolution and largest field of view ever. As a consequence, the scientific return of EUI has been spectacular so far. A significant fraction of the nominal lifetime of EUI (which is about 10 years) has passed and continuous monitoring of health and performance of the EUI telescopes and their CMOS imaging sensors becomes increasingly important. For example, the long-term degradation of the EUI sensors under EUV light is being assessed as we go.
In order to continue ensuring these ongoing EUI calibration activities, ROB is seeking to hire a EUI calibration scientist. The selected candidate will work within the EUI PI team at ROB, which is a small team (4 people) within the bigger solar physics group (SIDC, Solar Influences Data analysis Centre) at ROB of about 50 people from a diverse background. The selected candidate will interact frequently with the international EUI consortium outside ROB and with related projects and researchers within ROB/SIDC.
A scientific position is available for the analysis and simulation of radio science data in the context of the PRODEX project Planet Interior, with funding from the Belgian PRODEX program of ESA and of the Belgian Federal Science Policy Office. The Royal Observatory of Belgium (ROB) is actively involved in ESA and NASA planetary missions to Mars and Mercury, as well as to the icy moons and small bodies of the solar system. Utilizing the collected data, particularly radio science measurements, the ROB planetary research team studies the internal structure of these bodies and their evolution.
Goal: Develop time-frequency dissemination through the Belgian fiber optic network.
Duration: 1-year position
A scientific position is available for the characterization of Near-Earth Asteroids (NEA) as part of the ongoing planetary defense mission activities of the European Space Agency (ESA). The Royal Observatory of Belgium (ROB) is actively involved in the ESA planetary defense missions. The Hera mission, set to launch in October 2024, aims to investigate the Didymos binary asteroid, including the first assessment of its internal properties, and to measure the detailed outcome of NASA's DART mission kinetic impactor test. The Ramses mission focuses on characterizing the Apophis asteroid before, during, and after its closest approach to Earth in April 2029. The Satis mission is an ambitious 12Units-CubeSat mission concept designed for planetary defense activities in early 2030s. Its primary scientific objectives are to determine the inner structure of NEAs, estimate their regolith strength and cohesion, and establish their long-term orbital trajectories.
The successful candidate will contribute to the development and provision of space weather services, particularly in the development and coordination of the ESA S2P projects. The successful candidate will be involved in operational surveillance and forecasting of space weather, including on-call operation and shift work, and also contribute to the further development of these forecasting activities. The collaborator will work as part of the ROB/SIDC (Solar Influences Data analysis Centre), a leading space weather forecast center at the European level.
Thanks to an important support from the PRODEX (Program for the Development of Scientific Experiments) program managed by ESA (the European Space Agency) in collaboration with the Belgian Federal Science Policy Office, two positions for scientists ( activity group I ) will be available in the frame of the GENESIS mission for the period 2024-2025. GENESIS will be launched in 2028. It is the first-ever satellite with all four space-based geodetic techniques on-board, namely Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS), Satellite Laser Ranging (SLR), Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) and Doppler Orbitography and Radio-positioning Integrated by Satellite (DORIS).
The Royal Observatory of Belgium (ROB) and the Vrije Universiteit van Brussel (VUB) are jointly hiring a long term senior scientist to work on the development of the Earth Climate Observatory (ECO) space mission concept for the measurement of the most Essential of all Climate Variables (ECVs): the Earth Energy Imbalance (EEI). The ECO space mission concept was recently accepted for Phase 0 study by the European Space Agency (ESA) as a candidate Earth Explorer 12 mission. ECO is proposed by a European consortium – led by ROB - with members from Belgium, Sweden, France, the UK, Germany and Switzerland.
Thanks to funding from the European Commission for the period 2020-2025, a position for a scientist will be available, starting from 1st September 2024, to work on the modelling of the Earth rotation, the interior of the Earth and the flows inside its liquid core. The position is part of the ERC Synergy Grant « GRACEFUL » (GRavimetry, mAgnetism, rotation, and CorE FLow).