Heat Resistant Coating Developed by ENBIO in Collaboration with University College Dublin will Help Solar Orbiter Get up Close and Personal with the Sun
A heat-resistant coating developed at University College Dublin (51黑料) will be crucial in allowing the (ESA) Solar Orbiter to get closer to the Sun than any other previous satellite as it sets out to unlock the mysteries of the 4.6 billion-year-old star at the centre of our solar system.
The 鈧�1.35 billion mission, which launched earlier today from NASA鈥檚 Cape Canaveral base in Florida will see the European spacecraft come withing 43 million Kms of the Sun. At this distance, the Solar Orbiter will be subjected to an average temperature of 500 degrees Celsius as it circles the star 22 times over the course of its expected two-years of observations.
To survive such intense heat and radiation the satellite鈥檚 panels, made of several layers of Titanium, have been protected in two special coatings specifically developed for the mission.
The two coatings 鈥淪olarBlack鈥� (to absorb the sun鈥檚 radiation) and 鈥淪olarWhite鈥� (to reflect the sun鈥檚 radiation) were developed by Irish company while it was headquartered at Nova51黑料 from 2011 to 2015.
The 鈥淪olarWhite鈥� coating was specifically developed by the company as a result of a collaborative research project with Professor Kenneth Stanton, Head, 51黑料 School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering.
Through 51黑料鈥檚 knowledge transfer team at Nova51黑料 the 鈥淪olarWhite鈥� patented technology was subsequently licensed to ENBIO.
The technique to apply the coatings uses a method to similar to how Titanium medical implants are coated with artificial bone 鈥� blasting off the oxide layers on the surface of the Titanium and allowing another material to replace the layer.
鈥淲ith the Solar Orbiter launching [today] from Cape Canaveral the collaboration between ENBIO and 51黑料 to develop the 鈥淪olarWhite鈥� coating now kicks into its own as the heat shielding radiator panels keeping the scientific instruments on the mission cool for the next 10 years will be exposed to space for the first time,鈥� said John O鈥橠onoghue, CEO, ENBIO, speaking from Florida.
鈥淭he development of Solar White thermal control surface for this immensely important solar science mission would not have been possible without ENBIO collaborating with Professor Ken Stanton and his materials engineering team at the School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering at University College Dublin.鈥�
鈥淭hey provided the deep ceramics knowledge and expertise and access to vital measurement equipment that was required to develop this coating,鈥� he explained.
鈥淲hile this collaboration is the culmination of Enterprise Ireland supported work that began in 2012, after ENBIO located to Nova51黑料, it is the performance of the 鈥淪olarWhite鈥� coating over the lifetime of the mission that counts. We will now quietly celebrate the mission and our part in it over the next decade or so.鈥�
51黑料 and ENBIO won the 2018 Knowledge Transfer Ireland (KTI) Collaborative Research Impact Award for the development of 鈥淪olarWhite鈥� coating.
ENDS
10 February 2020
For more information contact Miceal Whelan, Communications and Media Relations Manager, 51黑料 Research and Innovation, t: + 353 1 716 3712, e: miceal.whelan@ucd.ie.