About the Position:

The JETS Space Environments team is seeking a Space Environments Engineer to join Intuitive Machines, a teammate company to provide multidisciplinary technical analysis/modeling and systems engineering support to NASA JSC across programs like Moon Base, Artemis, HLS, CLDP, and SR-1.

Responsibilities:

• Provide support to NASA programs in the definition of natural and induced space environments, including with multidisciplinary analysis and modeling, working in concert with NASA civil servants and designated contractors

• Develop and update semi-empirical and theoretical models of processes relevant to spacecraft natural and induced environments
• Analyze/model molecular and particulate contamination sources, including lunar dust, and transport from materials outgassing, vacuum venting, and rocket engine and thruster pluming processes onto spacecraft, elements, and payloads
• Analyze optical property impacts from molecular and particulate contamination, including lunar dust, and exposure to orbital and lunar surface environments (e.g., to ultraviolet radiation, ionizing radiation, and atomic oxygen)
• Analyze/model plasma effects, spacecraft charging, radiation transport and effects on hardware
• Assess compatibility of spacecraft hardware with natural and induced space environments
• Provide systems engineering support in space environments requirements and verification plan development as well as requirement and verification activities throughout the life of a program
• Conduct systems engineering trade studies to identify potential risks and mitigations, evaluate induced environmental hazards between vehicles, and participate in hazard/risk reviews
• Participate in programmatic milestone reviews
• Perform other duties as required

Requisition Qualifications:

• Requires a minimum of a bachelor's degree in engineering and 5- 10 years of related experience. License and certification may be required.
• 3 or more years of related work experience or an equivalent combination of technical education and experience (e.g., M.S. or Ph.D.)
• Experience using Microsoft Office Suite
• Experience in scientific computer programming and software development for analytical and physics-based modeling and simulation
• Strong analytical and computational skills
• Ability to work collaboratively in a multidisciplinary field
• Effective written and verbal communication skills

Requisition Preferences:

• M.S. or Ph.D. in Engineering (Aerospace, Mechanical, Chemical, Electrical, Nuclear), Physics or Chemistry
• 5 or more years of related work experience or an equivalent combination of technical education and experience (e.g., M.S. or Ph.D.)[DI1.1][HI1.2]
• Experience with NASA programs and projects, for example, Gateway and Artemis
• Experience with external contamination/molecular deposition analysis codes and/or tools including CAD, meshing, and visualization software (e.g., Matlab, Python, Creo, NX, FEMAP, Tecplot, ParaView, LS Dyna, etc.)
• Experience with materials outgassing, molecular transport, thin film deposition, optical property degradation, molecular gas dynamics, and/or multi-phase flows
• Experience with hypergolic and Hall Effect thrusters' operation as well as associated plume characteristics
• Experience with NASA and industry standards relating to contamination control and experimental characterization of materials outgassing (e.g., ASTM E1559)
• Knowledge of natural and induced space environments and related materials effects, including thermal vacuum stability, radiation (ionizing and UV), plasma charging, atomic oxygen, thermal cycling)
• Knowledge of lunar dust characteristics and effects, including for optical property and impact damage assessments, and of the lunar surface environment
• Knowledge of GCR, solar wind/ plasma, CMEs/SEPs, and solar irradiance
• Experience with plasma charging and ionizing radiation analyses or related tools (NASCAP, SPIS, IRI, AE9/AP9, CREME96, SHIELDOSE, ESP/PHYCHIC, MCNP, HZTRAN, SPENVIS, etc.)
• Experience with the Linux operating system.
• Proof of U.S. Citizenship or US Permanent Residency may be a requirement for this position.