Mechanical Engineering Internship/Co-op (Summer 2027)
El Segundo, CA$30/hrInternPosted 5d ago
About the role
General Astronautics is building autonomous dexterous robotic arms for orbital inspection, repair, and assembly. The Mechanical Engineering Intern/Co-op will help design, build, and test robotic hardware across mechanism design, CAD, analysis, prototyping, testing, and integration of robotic joints, end effectors, structures, and electromechanical assemblies.
Responsibilities
- Own a mechanism or subassembly from requirements and trade studies through detailed design, prototyping, and testing
- Develop CAD models and engineering drawings, including material selection, tolerances, and assembly processes
- Perform hand calculations and FEA to evaluate structural margins and validate designs across expected load conditions
- Build prototypes, test fixtures, and instrumentation to evaluate hardware performance
- Write and execute test plans, analyze results, and use the findings to improve your designs
- Support qualification and acceptance testing for parabolic flight and on-orbit demonstration hardware
- Produce drawings, analysis reports, bills of materials, and assembly documentation that others can build from
- Evaluate manufacturability, cost, and design risk, and work with the team to integrate your hardware with the robot, payload, and vehicle
Qualifications
- Enrolled in a bachelor's degree program in engineering, physics, computer science, or math by the start of employment
- GPA of 3.5 or above
- 6+ months of hands-on technical work outside the classroom through research, project teams, personal builds, or prior internships
- Strong fundamentals in prototyping, order-of-magnitude estimation, and hand calculations
- Strong written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to work alongside engineers, technicians, and the founding team
- Ability to take ownership of technical problems and adapt as priorities change
Skills
Required:Mechanism designCAD (Siemens NX, SolidWorks)
Nice to have:FEA/Analysis tools (e.g., MATLAB, Ansys)Prototyping & test fixturesElectrical integration
Last updated Oct 22, 2026. Interested? Apply on the company site.
About General Astronautics
Robotics for Space R&D
Robots for microgravity research and manufacturing.
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