Solar Orbiter
EU–(ENEWSPF)–13 February 2014. A pigment once daubed onto prehistoric cave paintings is set to protect ESA’s Solar Orbiter mission from the Sun’s close-up glare. Burnt bone charcoal will be applied to the spacecraft’s titanium heatshield using a novel technique.
Solar Orbiter, due for launch in 2017, will carry a portfolio of instruments to perform high-resolution imaging of our parent star from as close as 42 million km – a little more than a quarter of the distance to Earth.
Operating in direct view of the Sun, the mission must endure 13 times the intensity of terrestrial sunlight and temperatures rising as high as 520°C.
“The main body of the spacecraft takes cover behind a multi-layered 3.1 m by 2.4 m heatshield,” explained Pierre Olivier, Solar Orbiter’s safety engineer.
