EnBio Surface Under Test For Challenging Space Application - July 2011
EnBios strategy to deploy and commercialise its CoBlast technology into the high performance industrial coatings market was further boosted today, with a request being received for one of its surfaces to be evaluated for potential use on an upcoming unique satellite programme – called Solar Orbiter - managed by the European Space Agency.
Solar Orbiter is a leading candidate Medium-Class Mission in the European Space Agency's (ESA) Cosmic Vision Programme. It will study in unprecedented detail how our sun creates and controls the heliosphere, the bubble of space filled with particles and fields in which the Earth orbits. It is a medium-class mission to deliver first-class science.
Solar Orbiter builds on hugely successful missions such as SoHO and Ulysses. Like those missions, it is a collaboration between ESA and NASA, including major scientific payloads from the United States, and the provision of a launch by NASA.
Enbio's functional surface will be put through its paces to access its suitability for a number of applications, including the outer surface of the critical heatshield required for this mission.
The request came from Astrium, the overall project manager and assembler of the Solar Orbiter Programme, resulting from a parallel programme of work EnBio is currently engaged in with the ESA. "We are delighted that our CoBlast technology is being considered for this particularly challenging, literally out-of-this-world application. It is recognition of one of the key features of our unique surfaces - chemically-bonded robustness. Our surfaces can survive the harshest environment known– I am looking forward to exploiting this fact in terrestrial applications across multiple industries. Watch this space!"– commented Nigel Cobbe, VP Business Development.
Further details of this unique satellite mission can be found at:
http://sci.esa.int/science-e/www/area/index.cfm?fareaid=45