{"id":224788,"date":"2014-12-18T09:26:00","date_gmt":"2014-12-18T13:26:00","guid":{"rendered":"63608f76935b191b207a130becd7dfb4"},"modified":"2014-12-18T09:26:00","modified_gmt":"2014-12-18T13:26:00","slug":"sentinel-3a-antenna-covered","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/?p=224788","title":{"rendered":"Sentinel-3A antenna covered"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.esa.int\/var\/esa\/storage\/images\/esa_multimedia\/images\/2014\/12\/sentinel-3a_antenna_covered\/15170087-1-eng-GB\/Sentinel-3A_antenna_covered_small.jpg\" width=\"170\" height=\"96\" align=\"left\" hspace=\"8\" \/><\/p>\n<p>\nThe moment a team of technicians, gowned like hospital surgeons, wraps the Sentinel-3A radar altimeter in multilayer insulation to protect it from the temperature extremes found in Earth orbit.\n<\/p>\n<p>\nThe appliance of multiple layers of metal-sprayed plastic film with spacers in between is the reason why many satellites being readied for flight end up resembling crinkly-wrapped presents.\n<\/p>\n<p>\nThese layers help to maintain the \u2018thermal balance\u2019 of the satellite within set limits, enabling the electronics to function optimally and preventing any structural deformation from the rapid temperature shifts experienced in the airlessness of space.\n<\/p>\n<p>\nThis month saw the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.esa.int\/Our_Activities\/Observing_the_Earth\/Copernicus\/Sentinel-3_fully_formed\">completion of Sentinel-3A<\/a> at the mammoth Thales Alenia Space cleanroom in Cannes, France. After this picture was taken, it went on to endure shaker testing to simulate the experience of launch, with thermal testing due for early next year.\n<\/p>\n<p>\nAfter it is launched at the end of 2015, Sentinel-3A will use the antenna shown in the photo to measure the precise contours of the sea surface.\n<\/p>\n<p>\nDelivering key information for Europe\u2019s Copernicus programme, Sentinel-3A also carries an ocean-colour and land-imaging instrument and \u2018radiometer\u2019 to take the temperature of the sea surface.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.esa.int\/var\/esa\/storage\/images\/esa_multimedia\/images\/2014\/12\/sentinel-3a_antenna_covered\/15170087-1-eng-GB\/Sentinel-3A_antenna_covered_small.jpg\" width=\"170\" height=\"96\" align=\"left\" hspace=\"8\" \/><\/p>\n<p>\nThe moment a team of technicians, gowned like hospital surgeons, wraps the Sentinel-3A radar altimeter in multilayer insulation to protect it from the temperature extremes found in Earth orbit.\n<\/p>\n<p>\nThe appliance of multiple layers of metal-sprayed plastic film with spacers in between is the reason why many satellites being readied for flight end up resembling crinkly-wrapped presents.\n<\/p>\n<p>\nThese layers help to maintain the \u2018thermal balance\u2019 of the satellite within set limits, enabling the electronics to function optimally and preventing any structural deformation from the rapid temperature shifts experienced in the airlessness of space.\n<\/p>\n<p>\nThis month saw the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.esa.int\/Our_Activities\/Observing_the_Earth\/Copernicus\/Sentinel-3_fully_formed\">completion of Sentinel-3A<\/a> at the mammoth Thales Alenia Space cleanroom in Cannes, France. After this picture was taken, it went on to endure shaker testing to simulate the experience of launch, with thermal testing due for early next year.\n<\/p>\n<p>\nAfter it is launched at the end of 2015, Sentinel-3A will use the antenna shown in the photo to measure the precise contours of the sea surface.\n<\/p>\n<p>\nDelivering key information for Europe\u2019s Copernicus programme, Sentinel-3A also carries an ocean-colour and land-imaging instrument and \u2018radiometer\u2019 to take the temperature of the sea surface.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":615444,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-224788","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-multimedia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224788","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=224788"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224788\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/615444"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=224788"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=224788"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=224788"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}