Ingenieur/in - Maschinenbau

TUD Dresden University of Technology, as a University of Excellence, is one of the leading and most dynamic research institutions in the country. For TUD diversity is an essential feature and a quality criterion of an excellent university. Accordingly, we welcome all applicants who would like to commit themselves, their achievements and productivity to the success of the whole institution.

At the Faculty of Mechanical Science and Engineering, Institute of Aerospace Engineering, the Chair of Space Systems offers a full-time position as

Research Associate / PhD Student (m/f/x)

E-Sailors - Electric solar wind Sail doctors

(salary according to MSCA regulation)

starting May 1, 2026.

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation program under the MARIE SKŁODOWSKA-CURIE grant agreement no 101227277.

Research areas:      DC5: High-Voltage PPU for E-sail

Terms:                     The position is limited to 36 months. The period of employment is governed by the Fixed          Term Research Contracts Act (Wissenschaftszeitvertragsgesetz – WissZeitVG).

Supervisory team:   Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Martin Tajmar                                Co-supervisor:  Assoc. Prof. Dr. Jaan Praks

Secondment:           2 months at Aalto university in Finland

**About E-Sailors: **The Electric solar wind Sail doctors (E-Sailors) is a challenge-based Doctoral Network that aims to bring Electric solar wind sail (E-sail) from Low Earth Orbit (LEO) demonstration missions to the operational environment of the solar wind. It is delivered by 8 universities in cooperation with FMI, where E-sail was invented, and 4 companies. 

E-sail is a highly innovative and potentially disruptive propellantless propulsion system. An operational E-sail consists of hair-thin and kilometers-long wires, or tethers, which are charged at a high voltage creating an electrostatic sheath (electric sail) which deflects solar wind particles and generates the propulsive effect in interplanetary environment. Successful and rapid development and deployment of the technology will ensure EU's leadership in the exploration and exploitation of deep space, the next commercial space frontier.  

The program is designed to achieve the following training objectives for our doctoral candidates: 1) Equip them with core scientific skills and specialized knowledge in designing experiments for demonstrating space technologies and developing space missions; 2) Provide them with a wide range of transferrable skills, such as Open Science and FAIR, communicating science to public, advocacy, networking etc.; 3) Develop their business and entrepreneurship skills, such as IPR management, preliminary business planning, pitching to investors, starting start-ups.

Project description: This position dubbed “E-Sailor 5” will be responsible for developing a high-voltage PPU that shall power the E-Sail electron emitter, sail and associated devices.

The E-Sail electron gun needs a power-processing-unit to provide the required voltages and currents. As a start, voltages in the range of 20 kV and currents in the hundreds of µA are needed, to be determined in close cooperation with E-Sailor 6. The challenge is to design a PPU that can withstand vacuum and space environments and therefore needs to be very efficient to minimize cooling. The design shall form the basis for variations that can power other related propulsion concepts in the TUD lab like those developed by E-Sailor 3.

Prototypes shall be built and thoroughly tested to match performance and lifetime requirements. In the end, support shall be given to support payload integration for the ESTCube-LuNa mission.

The full job advertisement can be found at: https://tu-dresden.de/vacancy/12513

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