Engineers mount the sunshield and solar array module to the rest of ESA’s Plato spacecraft.
The activities took place in a dedicated cleanroom at ESTEC, ESA’s technical heart in the Netherlands, on 9 September.
The engineering team suspended the combined sunshield and solar array module using special lifting gear. Then, they manoeuvred the module to precisely align it with the back of the spacecraft and carefully mounted it in place.
Once in orbit, the solar array will catch light from the Sun to power the spacecraft electronics. The sunshield will keep the scientific equipment in the shadow, protected from the Sun’s glare.
[Image description: Six engineers in a large, bright-white room work on a large satellite. The sides of the satellite’s top part are wrapped in gold thermal blankets; the top is covered with a blue blanket. The bottom part consists of a black boxy structure with several cables running over it].
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