Rover Thermal Control Systems Engineer (GNC/ Software)

Astrolab is hiring a Rover Thermal Control Systems Engineer to develop and implement active thermal control systems and algorithms for extraterrestrial rovers. The role covers system simulation, controller design and validation, component sizing, testing, and integration of controllers into flight software.

Responsibilities:

• Work with the thermal team and stakeholders to define thermal control system requirements from vehicle and subsystem level functional and performance requirements
• Design, develop, tune, verify, and validate vehicle thermal control system performance
• Support the thermal team’s development of simulation and modeling tools for thermal control system design, analysis and tuning in appropriate tools and mature models as additional test data becomes available
• Design and prototype appropriate controllers that meet the defined requirements using simulations and control system design tools
• Work with the thermal team to size and place thermal control system components such as RTDs, heaters, radiators, etc. to ensure efficient, effective vehicle thermal control
• Analyze and tune controller performance, stability, and robustness using the system simulations and TVAC test data
• Develop control system documentation and work with vehicle software team to convert controller prototypes into flight code, including supporting unit and integrated testing of flight implementations
• Support calibration of thermal control system sensors and implementation of calibration in flight software

Requirements:

• 10+ years of space vehicle thermal control system and algorithm analysis, design, development, verification, and validation. Relevant space vehicles include space stations, human-rated spacecraft, deep space science missions, extra-terrestrial rovers, or similar
• Experience working with thermal hardware and modeling teams tobuild, test, and validate thermal control systems simulation and analysis tools for space vehicles
• Experience modeling, analyzing, and tuning performance of thermal control systems to maximize thermal control authority while minimizing power and energy consumption and control system complexity
• Experience modeling, analyzing, and tuning performance of thermal control systems to maximize thermal control authority while minimizing power and energy consumption and control system complexity. Preference will be given to candidates that have done modeling at both system and detailed board levels
• Experience working with limited thermal system observability (e.g. need to limit number of avionics channels, data bandwidth, and harnessing)
• Experience sizing thermal control systems and ensuring optimal (or close to optimal) placement of thermal control system elements (e.g. sensors, heaters, radiators)
• Experience working with testbeds for testing control systems on flight-like hardware and devising test plans to ensure proper testing of vehicle thermal control systems in relevant environments
• Strong proficiency with spacecraft thermal modeling, thermal control system design tools, and control systems analysis (e.g. thermal desktop, Matlab controls system toolbox)
• Experience designing thermal control algorithms for complex, sensitive systems such as robotic arms, optical sensors with limited optimal operational temperature ranges, and similar