Thales Alenia Space delivers METIS instrument and heat shield for Solar Orbiter
Set for launch in 2019, ESA spacecraft will get closer to the Sun than ever before
Rome, April 28, 2017 – Thales Alenia Space, the joint venture between Thales (67%) and
Leonardo (33%), today announced two milestones in the Solar Orbiter mission to investigate the
Sun and the heliosphere. It has completed construction of the heat shield on behalf of Airbus
Defence and Space for the European Space Agency’s Solar Orbiter spacecraft, and delivered to
the Italian space agency ASI the scientific instrument METIS (Multi-Element Telescope for
Imaging and Spectroscopy).
Scheduled for a 2019 launch, the Solar Orbiter will perform an in-depth study of the main
phenomena associated with the Sun and the solar corona. Sent into a highly elliptic orbit around
the Sun, this advanced spacecraft will be able to observe the Sun more closely than ever before,
at a distance less than that between the Sun and Mercury.
The Solar Orbiter will be carrying ten scientific instruments, including METIS, proposed by an
Italy-led international scientific consortium founded by ASI, and produced by Thales Alenia Space
Italy in conjunction with OHB Italia. This innovative instrument will produce the first high-resolution
images of the solar corona in polarized visible light and in ultraviolet. The data gathered by Metis
will allow scientists to completely characterise remotely the two most important plasma
components of the corona and the solar wind (electrons and protons) and answer fundamental
questions about the origins of the fast and slow wind, the sources of solar energetic particles, and
the eruption and early changes in coronal mass ejections.
The heat shield, designed and produced by Thales Alenia Space in Turin, Italy for Airbus Defence
and Space, has been shipped to the IABG facility in Germany for final thermal-mechanical
acceptance tests. The heat shield was a daunting technological challenge because it will have to
protect the satellite from the intense solar radiation present at such close range. It is sized to keep
the entire satellite in the shade, radiating the accumulated heat into deep space. The outermost
layer is made of titanium, and can withstand temperatures up to 600ºC.
With these two latest milestones in the Solar Orbiter program, Thales Alenia Space continues to
confirm its technological expertise for leading-edge space exploration endeavors. The company
has already developed advanced scientific instruments for the Planck and GOCE missions, and
will provide sophisticated radio instruments for the upcoming BepiColombo mission to explore
Mercury and the Euclid satellite designed to map the geometry of the “dark universe”.
About Thales Alenia Space
Thales Alenia Space brings over 40 years of experience to the design, integration, testing and operation of innovative space systems
for telecommunications, navigation, Earth observation, environmental management, exploration, science and orbital infrastructures. A
joint venture between Thales (67%) and Leonardo (33%), Thales Alenia Space also teams up with Telespazio to form the parent
companies’ “Space Alliance”, which offers a complete range of services and solutions. Thales Alenia Space has built up unrivaled
expertise in dual (civil-military) missions, constellations, flexible high-throughput payloads, altimetry, meteorology, and high-resolution
radar and optical observation. The company capitalizes on its strong legacy, while also making innovation a key to its strategy. By
offering a continuous stream of new products and expanding its global footprint, Thales Alenia Space has established its leadership in
today’s fast-evolving space sector. Thales Alenia Space posted consolidated revenues of about 2.4 billion euros in 2016 and has 7,980
employees in nine countries. www.thalesaleniaspace.com
Thales Alenia Space – Press Contacts:
Sandrine Bielecki
Chrystelle Dugimont
Tiziana Ebano
Cinzia Marcanio
Phone: +33 (0)4 92 92 70 94
Phone: +33 (0)4 92 92 74 06
Tel: +39 06 41512574
Tel: +39 06 41512685
[email protected]
[email protected]
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