Context

The University Space Center of Montpellier (CSUM) is the French leader in the development and operation of nanosatellites developed by students. It has acquired in-depth competences in the field of design, manufacturing, testing and operation of nanosatellites and their subsystems, as well as in the area of space project management and product assurance in the framework of university space projects. The CSUM has an AIT (Assembly Integration and Test) Facility, a CDF (Concurrent Design Facility) and both UHF and Sband Ground Stations. The CSUM develops its own 1U to 12U CubeSat nanosatellite platforms with the support of the Van Allen Foundation and the French and European space agencies.

Internship description

Objectives: CSUM is developing and currently in phase B of a 12U platform designed to accommodate complex payloads from our partners. A team of interns will contribute to finalizing the preliminary design of the platform by capitalizing on the lessons learned from CSUM’s numerous missions and will support the development of subsystems up to the implementation of a first functional model called FlatSat.

This offer focuses on the System Engineering tasks for this phase of development:

Main activities related to your mission:

Finalize and document the preliminary design of the plateform architecture and interfaces with ground segment
Define and control interfaces between subsystems inside the plateform and with ground support equipment
Establish verification methods for compliance with technical requirements for the platform
Study technology readiness level of selected design, estimate risks and supervise tradeoff to be made at system level
Define and write functional test plans and procedures for satellite FlatSat model and run them during AIT of the model

Level: 2nd year of Master Degree or equivalent.

Duration: 4 to 6 months

Skills (it is not mandatory to have all of them):

Knowledge of CubeSats, space systems architecture and system engineering
Experience in test benches and AIT
English – minimum: being able to have a technical discussion with experts and to write documentation
Ability to produce clear technical reports and presentations

Location: Centre Spatial de l’Université de Montpellier, Campus Saint-Priest, Montpellier, France.

Stipend: 4.35 euros/worked hours for duration between 308 and 924 hours, 35 hours/week.

Preferred starting date: March 2026

Supervisor: Tristan ALLAIN (Lead System Engineer)