SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT

 

11. A SCIENCE LOGBOOK FOR THE BEPICOLOMBO QUICK-LOOK ANALYSIS

ESAC supervisor(s): Santa Martinez, Mark Bentley, Thomas Cornet, Alan Macfarlane

BepiColombo is a joint ESA/JAXA mission that launched on 20th October 2018 and is now on a 7-year journey to Mercury. The cruise phase will include flybys of the Earth, Venus and Mercury itself before entering a stable orbit in late 2025. The BepiColombo mission consists of two spacecraft: the Mercury Planetary Orbiter (ESA/MPO) hosting 11 instruments and the Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter (JAXA/MMO or 'Mio') hosting 5 instruments.

To facilitate the preliminary analysis of the science products produced by the instruments and the continuous monitoring of the spacecraft and instrument health throughout the mission, the BepiColombo Science Ground Segment (SGS) based at ESA's European Space Astronomy Centre (ESAC) in Madrid, Spain, is developing a Quick-Look Analysis (QLA) system. The QLA is a web-based application providing science data visualisation tools through interactive and customisable plots, images and tables. 

An interesting extension of the QLA will be to allow the instrument teams to be able to note and share interesting "events" seen in their data with each other via a Science Logbook that would provide a space for further discussion of the data. This will assist the instrument teams in identifying when/where data from several instruments can be compared and in planning future observations.  

The essence of the Science Logbook would be a type of secured web discussion forum where users will be able to create posts from snapshots of, and linking to, the data in the QLA. Users will be then be able to comment, discuss and follow threads/topics of interest. 

The trainee will work with the SGS team to design and develop the initial BepiColombo Science Logbook through identifying the most suitable web technologies to use and developing the prototype web application that will allow users to link to and discuss data from the QLA. 

Project duration: 6 months

Desirable expertise or programming language:

  • Programming experience in JavaScript, HTML, CSS,
  • Experience in web design, Angular/Typescript and Markdown would be assets

12. CROSS-MATCH OPERATIONS ON LARGE ASTRONOMICAL CATALOGUES ON SPARK AND AXS

ESAC supervisor(s): Bruno Altieri, Sara Nieto, Pilar de Teodoro

The aim of this traineeship project is to execute cross-match operations on large astronomical catalogues using Apache Spark and AXS (Astronomy eXtensions for Spark). AXS is a scalable open-source astronomical data analysis framework built on Apache Spark, a widely used industry-standard engine for big-data processing. The Euclid mission will generate petabytes of data and running cross-match operations is an essential capability of the Euclid Archive System.
The project will consist of the following main points:
1) Configure, deploy and run an Apache Spark cluster and AXS
2) Preparation of astronomical catalogues to perform the cross-match operations
3) Preparation of test cases based on available data sources
4) Performance metrics and conclusions
The traineeship project will be supported by the ESAC Science Data Centre and Science Operation Centre of Euclid, both at ESAC.

Project duration: 3-6 months

Desirable expertise or programming language:

  • Some programming skills will be helpful (e.g. Python, SQL, Java...)
  • Knowledge of Apache Spark, Jupyter Notebooks, Docker or similar will be an asset.

13. CENTRALIZED ACCES SYSTEM OF PA METRICS

ESAC supervisor(s): Maria Garcia Reinaldos, Luis Martin, Jose Marcos, Julio Gallegos

SCI-OQ has implemented a Product Assurance Environment used to perform tests and analysis of the project processes and products using tools replicated from the projects. The selected candidate making use of this PA Environment will work in the collection and storage of the  SCI-O projects metrics  in a TBD database management system and implement the mechanism to allow dynamic access to and analysis of the project metrics.

Project duration: 6 months

Desirable expertise or programming language:

  • Software engineering background,
  • Software Quality Assurance practices and techniques, 
  • Basic knowledge of programming languages (e.g. java, python, HTML),
  • Knowledge of some software quality tools (e.g. SonarQube, findBugs, PMD),
  • Good communication skills.

14. Conference Mobile Application Development

ESAC supervisor(s): Rocio Guerra, Ruben Alvarez, Miguel Doctor

The Science Information Technology Unit (SITU) is responsible for providing the best Technical Information Systems for scientific and operational purposes for ESA at ESAC. One of those systems is Cosmos. 
Cosmos is a web portal based solution architected to support missions and projects within ESA Science, facilitating the timely and efficient exchange of key technical and scientific information within the Scientific Community. Cosmos is a distributed service provided by, and in cooperation with, the relevant teams at ESAC and ESTEC.
ESA is offering a 6 months traineeship opportunity within the SITU Projects & Applications group. The main tasks to be carried out by the trainee are the following:
  - Participate in the definition and design of a Conference Navigator App that will enable to access and manage the scientific conferences organised by the ESA Science directorate
  - Development of such application and integration within the Cosmos framework
  - Verification and validation activities
 

Project duration: 6 months

Desirable expertise or programming language:

  • Mobile development knowledge of at least one of the following technologies:
    • Multiplatform react native development (Javascript),
    • Android and iOS,
    • Progressive web apps with Java/Vaadin,
  • Good level of English, spoken and written, is required,
  • Teamwork,
  • Willingness to learn.