14 DAY TRIAL // Officials at the European Space Agency (ESA) announced recently that their Solar Orbiter mission will be getting a sunshield that is covered in a pigment first identified in prehistoric cave paintings. This spacecraft will have to operate in temperatures reaching as high as 520 degrees Celsius (968°F).
During its mission, the orbiter will be exposed to roughly 13 times the amount of sunlight Earth is receiving. At its point of closest approach to the Sun, the spacecraft will be just 42 million kilometers (27 million miles) away from the star, or a quarter of the average Sun-Earth distance.
The Solar Orbiter features a titanium sunshield, on top of which engineers will apply a layer of burnt bone charcoal for extra durability and heat protection. This material was selected because it can retain its color despite being exposed to intense sunlight over several years.
“The main body of the spacecraft takes cover behind a multi-layered […] heatshield. And Solar Orbiter’s instruments will operate at the far end of ‘feed-through’ lines that run through the shield, some under protective covers of beryllium or glass,” explains Solar Orbiter safety engineer, Pierre Olivier.