NASA Postdoctoral Program - Spacecraft and Instrument Development for Planetary Science and Exploration

The NASA Postdoctoral Program (NPP) offers unique research opportunities to highly-talented scientists to engage in ongoing NASA research projects at a NASA Center, NASA Headquarters, or at a NASA-affiliated research institute. These one- to three-year fellowships are competitive and are designed to advance NASA's missions in space science, Earth science, aeronautics, space operations, exploration systems, and astrobiology. This specific opportunity focuses on spacecraft and instrument development for planetary science and exploration at NASA Johnson Space Center's Astromaterials Research and Exploration Science (ARES) Directorate. The research involves the development of concept designs and feasibility studies of science instruments and engineering experiments to be flown on robotic and human spacecraft missions. Selected candidates will be intimately involved with the entire process of concept formulation and will participate in further development in areas related to instrument design/fabrication, computational/experimental modeling, and system engineering tests. The goal is to develop and design hardware at relatively low technology readiness levels that can be upgraded for inclusion into future flight missions investigating the Moon, Earth's Orbital Environment, Near-Earth Objects, Mainbelt Asteroids, Comets, Mars and its Satellites, and the Trojan Asteroids.