Staff Thermal Control Systems Engineer

Department: Software Engineering

Location: Hawthorne, California

Compensation: $190,000 - $220,000 / year

Description Astrolab is The Lunar Operations Company. We design and build the systems and hardware the lunar economy will come to depend on — rovers, power, and data networks for sustained operations on the Moon. We are focused on the problems that must be solved before the next chapter of human exploration can scale. The Moon does not forgive untested assumptions. The people who work here know that, and they wouldn't have it any other way.

Astrolab is seeking a control systems engineer to support development of active thermal control systems for extra-terrestrial rovers with highly constrained power and energy budgets. Thermal control system development will include simulation, analysis, and design of vehicle thermal control systems; identification and sizing of thermal control system sensors and actuators (heaters or other); analysis, characterization, verification, and validation of thermal control system performance; gain tuning; and supporting integrated hardware/software testing to verify thermal control system performance.

What you'll do:

• Work with 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
• Build 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
• Define sizing and placement of 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

What you'll bring: Basic Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in a Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics (STEM) related field
• 10+ years of space vehicle thermal control system 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 building, testing, and validating thermal control systems simulation and analysis tools for space vehicles

Preferred Qualifications

• 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 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 for complex, sensitive systems such as robotic arms, optical sensors with limited optimal operational temperature ranges, and similar is desired

Benefits and Perks

• Join a team of best-in-class engineers building the foundation of planetary surface exploration
• Equity ownership in the company
• Comprehensive health benefits, including medical, dental, vision, and mental health support
• 401(k) plan with company match
• Flexible PTO and parental leave
• Weekly lunch stipend, plus complimentary snacks and beverages on-site
• Once a month social hour on-site with food and drinks