Our team and mission

The Energy Storage Section provides functional support to ESA projects and carries out technological research and development (R&D) in the field of energy storage for space applications, typically primary and secondary batteries, fuel cells, supercapacitors and nuclear power systems.

You are encouraged to visit the ESA website: https://www.esa.int/

Field(s) of activity/research for the traineeship

As a Research Fellow, you will spearhead the development of advanced techniques for assessing the health and performance of batteries for space applications. Using your expertise in high-precision coulometry (HPC), electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and other relevant methodologies, you will contribute to battery diagnostics in different phases of the cell and battery development, from technology definition to end of life in orbit.

In particular, your research activities will be to: 

• perform a literature survey and market analysis of the terrestrial applications of battery performance and health assessment techniques;
• forecast and validate new cell technologies, batches and models for future missions. As long-term testing for new cells is time-consuming and costly, novel approaches are required to obtain robust and reliable degradation assessments within months, not years. For this purpose, high-precision coulometry will be used in combination with electrochemical impedance spectroscopy to assess early-life degradation and provide a qualitative estimate of capacity fade forecasts of very long-term cycling (10-15 year missions);
• analyse in-orbit performances and assess ageing with respect to performance predictions using existing correlated models;
• provide qualitative assessments on in-orbit mission extensions or terminations, including the passivation phase;
• lead research on passivation for the appropriate management of the battery pack at end of mission to prevent the risk of satellites breaking up due to the stored energy in the power subsystem, in line with the new space debris mitigation requirements. For this purpose, the newly acquired abuse test chamber facility in the ESA Space Power Laboratory at ESTEC will be used for the real-life application of novel methods and protocols;
• devise, set up, perform and assess commercial cell disassembly for post-mortem investigations, and reassemble the harvested electrode materials into half coin cells to obtain electromotive force curves that, when used in combination with electrochemical impedance spectroscopy, will result in data exploitable by multiscale models. Any other means of improving these models would also be desirable;
• support cell qualification of payloads during the destructive physical analysis (DPA) of cells/batteries phase and analyse the related results.

Technical competencies

Behavioural competencies

Result Orientation
Operational Efficiency
Fostering Cooperation
Relationship Management
Continuous Improvement
Forward Thinking 

Education

You should have recently completed or be close to completing a PhD in chemical engineering, chemistry or material sciences with a focus on lithium-ion batteries, batteries or related technologies.
Preference will be given to applications submitted by candidates who have received their PhD within the past five years.

Additional requirements

You should also have:
 

• experience in the space sector or battery industry
• familiarity with battery cycling hardware and software, as well as in subsequent data analysis and interpretations
• experience with data analysis and simulation tools such as Python and MATLAB
• experience in electrochemical impedance spectroscopy
• experience in setting up high-precision coulometry tests
• experience in the disassembly/reassembly of cells
• experience in any spectroscopy (such as XRD, XPS) techniques
• experience in any imaging (such as optical microscopy or X-ray computed spectroscopy) techniques
• general interest in space and space research

The working languages of the Agency are English and French. A good knowledge of one of these is required. Knowledge of another Member State language would be an asset.