Solar array deployment rig
Date: 14 June 2018
Satellite: BepiColombo
Location: Kourou, French Guiana
Copyright: ESA–B.Guillaume
Setting up the rig needed for the solar array deployment tests for the BepiColombo Mercury Transfer Module and Mercury Planetary Orbiter. The equipment is needed to support the solar arrays from above, to simulate the weightlessness of space. The transfer module's two solar wings reach about 14 m either side of the spacecraft body, while the orbiter's single three-panel array is 7.5 m long.
Last Update: 1 September 2019
