Engineered4Extremes - In Focus

Nothing in the solar system cooks quite like the space around Mercury. Spacecraft operating there face extreme thermal, radiation and vacuum conditions that demand highly specialised materials and surface treatments. BepiColombo, the joint ESA-Japan mission to Mercury, is a demanding test of exactly this kind of engineering. Cambridge-based Keronite developed the plasma electrolytic oxidation coating used on the Mercury Planetary Orbiter's solar-array thermal shields, protecting mission-critical components from intense solar heating. The technology creates a hard ceramic surface on lightweight metals, delivering stable thermo-optical properties and resistance to extreme temperatures and ultraviolet radiation. It is a reminder that the toughest problems in space exploration are often solved by materials engineers working in microns, not rocket scientists working in metres.