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Hello everyone!

I was a programmer (gamedev, Unity3D/C# stack). But all my life I was interested in space flights and space exploration. I multiple times tried to apply myself to space, but never been successful in this.

3 times I tried to establish my own private space company but in Russia where I was from nobody needs this. Later I studied myself math, astrodynamics and orbital mechanics. I even participated private space mission of Russian company Geoscan ('Edelveis', NORAD ID 53385), as a volunteer astrodynamicist. After what happened at 2022, I left Russia and join Kazakhstan space startup. That looked surprisingly successful for a time. But in the end they did not find money for their project, and I left them.

I am trying to find a work of an astrodynamicist or something like this. But I don't know how to enter this industry, I see no entry points.

Please, could anyone give me a clues, how to apply to job in real space projects? Any piece of advice would be helpful. Thank you very much!

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    $\begingroup$ I’m voting to close this question because I don't think career advice is really in the scope of space.se $\endgroup$
    – Dragongeek
    Commented Dec 7 at 14:20
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    $\begingroup$ That said, my general observation (from a European perspective) is that most jobs in the "space industry", especially if they are scientific in nature like an astrodynamicist, require a relevant higher degree, so a MSc or PhD at minimum. For example, at the ESA or German DLR, your application will simply be thrown out if you do not have a master's degree, and you will not be hired. The only way that it is possible is either finding small private companies or maybe getting a job at a consultancy firm, who then lends out your labor to a space-industry company/org as an external contractor $\endgroup$
    – Dragongeek
    Commented Dec 7 at 14:26
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    $\begingroup$ I would focus on what you know and can show you know (gamedev programming in this case) and see if you can use that skillset. For example, someone needs to program the visualization engine that the space industry uses for their webcasts, advertisements, or internal mission simulators etc. $\endgroup$
    – Dragongeek
    Commented Dec 7 at 14:30
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    $\begingroup$ There are plenty of questions on SE asking for career advice. $\endgroup$
    – Greg Miller
    Commented Dec 7 at 14:55
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    $\begingroup$ @Starship have you checked? I've been reading questions here for almost ten years and there really are some career-related questions here that are well-received and answered. But there are not a lot, and there are more that were closed than remained open. $\endgroup$
    – uhoh
    Commented Dec 7 at 23:55

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I am trying to find a work of an astrodynamicist or something like this.

Please, could anyone give me a clues, how to apply to job in real space projects?

Get relevant experience!

While your gamedev experience includes compiled coding and some kinds of simulation of physical processes, you are probably not doing actual numerical simulations, but instead making calls to some kind of "physics engine".

And if that's not accurate, then it still may be the perception of anyone reading your resume.

So just finding places to apply and sending a resume with "John Smith, Game Developer" on the top may not result in anything.

Here's what I would recommend:

  1. Spend some time reading through this site, and looking at discussions of astrodynamical calculations. Use the tags, or keyword searches to dig through. Spend days, not just hours, reading the questions, the answers and the sources that the answers link to.
  2. Work some problems without GMAT. Write a three-body ODE solver (like for example this one) that gives the right answer. It's harder than you would think!
  3. Learn the language of astrodynamics. For example, find out what a state transition matrix is. And while you are at it, learn to use matrix mathematics.
  4. NETWORK! Join additional groups and forums. Look for more volunteer work that gets you very relevant experience.
  5. Hang around a university, Kazakstan has many! Look for ways to engage in engineering projects there - either "fun" ones, or volunteer work, or even a low-paying position within the university. If you keep your eye and ears open you may learn about the next start-up there.

But in the mean time, try your best to maintain employment on paper, to avoid giant gaps. Yes, that may mean programing not related to spaceflight, but maybe you can transition to something in the general field of engineering at least?

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  • $\begingroup$ Thank you very much for full and deep-detailed answer. Talking about practical problem solving - I am using GMAT, Poliastro and self-made library written in Python and based on algorithms from David Vallado book. I briefly know methods of numerical integration (like Runge-Kutta or Monte Carlo method), but I never realized them myself. I have solid knowledge of linear algebra and quaternions and control theory (even participated in development of digital twins of real industrial equipment - this is main thing nowadays Unity3D is used for). Where I should point myself next in math? $\endgroup$
    – Даниил Галахов
    Commented Dec 8 at 10:21
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    $\begingroup$ Talking about university - I am not in Kazakhstan now (Russia is falling and I prefer to be as far from this as possible), so now I am applying to Chiang Mai University in Thailand. So, this part of your advice is very relevant for me, thank you very much. $\endgroup$
    – Даниил Галахов
    Commented Dec 8 at 10:24
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    $\begingroup$ And talking about language of astrodynamics - I have an important question. I want to be a specialist who control the flight of spacecrafts, that one who named "astrogator" in science fiction. In Russian space industry there is no such specialization (there is separate ballistic specialists, separate programmers, separate "operators" who upload program to satellite, etc.) AFAIK in Western space industry "astrodynamicist" is someone who is as close to "astrogator" as possible. Am I right, or maybe I am looking wrong direction? $\endgroup$
    – Даниил Галахов
    Commented Dec 8 at 10:35
  • $\begingroup$ @ДаниилГалахов Oh I see! Well, I recommend you ask a new question about the day-to-day realities of the processes by which spacecraft are controlled. I don't have any first-hand experience, but I think you will find that those things are decided in meetings with management, then the details are laid out and then simulated by a team of hardware and software engineers, then coded/scripted by other engineers, then the results are presented in a new round of meetings. Once final approval from management is obtained, the scripted set of instructions is sent to the communications team... $\endgroup$
    – uhoh
    Commented Dec 8 at 20:38
  • $\begingroup$ @ДаниилГалахов ...who coordinate with the spacecraft's communication schedule with the various ground stations around the world to finally send the instructions. I am not sure that any one person wears the "astrogator" hat. But like I said, I don't have any personal experience with it so I think I you should ask about it. $\endgroup$
    – uhoh
    Commented Dec 8 at 20:40

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