![](\"http:\/\/www.esa.int\/var\/esa\/storage\/images\/esa_multimedia\/images\/2015\/07\/bepicolombo_antenna_in_lss\/15530051-5-eng-GB\/BepiColombo_antenna_in_LSS_small.jpg\")
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\nThe antenna that will connect Europe\u2019s BepiColombo<\/a> with Earth is being tested for the extreme conditions it must endure orbiting Mercury.\n<\/p>\n \nThe trial is taking place over 10 days inside ESA\u2019s Large Space Simulator, which, at 15 m high and 10 m across, is cavernous enough to accommodate an upended double decker bus.\n<\/p>\n \nThe 1.5 m-diameter high-gain antenna, plus its boom and support structure, are subjected to a shaft of intense sunlight in vacuum conditions, while gradually rotated through 90\u00ba.\n<\/p>\n \nThe antenna will be part of ESA\u2019s Mercury Planetary Orbiter, one of two main components of the January 2017 BepiColombo mission \u2013 the other being Japan\u2019s Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter.\n<\/p>\n \nThe two will be launched together in a stack, carried by the Mercury Transfer Module for their seven-year journey towards the Solar System\u2019s innermost world.\n<\/p>\n \nThe Simulator is part of the largest spacecraft testing facility in Europe<\/a>, at ESA\u2019s ESTEC technical centre in Noordwijk, the Netherlands.\n<\/p>\n \nThe mammoth chamber\u2019s high-performance pumps create a vacuum a billion times lower than standard sea-level atmosphere, while the chamber\u2019s black interior walls are lined with tubes pumped full of \u2013190\u00b0C liquid nitrogen to mimic the extreme cold of deep space.\n<\/p>\n \nAt the same time, the hexagonal mirrors seen at the top of the picture reflect simulated sunlight onto the satellite from a set of 25 kW bulbs more typically employed to project IMAX movies.\n<\/p>\n \nIn this case, the alignment of the 121 mirrors was adjusted to tighten the focus of their light beam, reproducing the intensity of sunlight experienced in Mercury orbit \u2013 around 10 times more intense than terrestrial illumination.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n