What makes space an extreme environment

It can be used to adjust lenses and antennas, open covers, pan and tilt cameras, and devices, deploy hinges and drive a robotic arm. In addition to its successful operation in extreme temperatures, the DACEE motion controller is built with a small form factor that requires minimal power to operate. Together, these features and capabilities make the DACEE a likely component in future Martian and lunar rovers , as well as innovative robotics designed to explore asteroids, comets, and far-flung moons and planets throughout our solar system.

This innovative technology will allow new mission capabilities in a variety of destinations such as the Icy Moons. Skip to content. You are here:. Extreme Environment Exploration.

Project Stats. Project Overview:. The transient radiation is mainly composed of protons and cosmic rays that constantly stream through space and are enhanced during the magnetic storms on the Sun known as 'solar flares'. When this radiation collides with electronic circuits, they can change the contents of memory cells, cause spurious currents to flow around the craft or even burn out computer chips. Building integrated circuits that resist the effects of radiation is known as 'space hardening'.

Usually this involves redesigning the chips so that they are shielded in some way from the harmful radiation. Another approach is to detect the errors produced by space radiation and correct them. Meteor showers can also damage spacecraft. The little dust particles that cause us to see 'shooting stars' travel through space at several kilometres per second and can have the effect of 'sand blasting' large arrays of vital solar panels.

Although we can heat the sensors in orbit to heal the damage, it is never completely repaired. New methods to deal with the damage are finally coming up with workable solutions. One involves a new type of sensor that captures images using the holes left behind by electrons to capture the image, instead of the electrons themselves. Another involves better processing of the images to counter the damage caused by radiation. Understanding such damage is becoming more important as scientists need even more sensitive cameras to go in space.

Dark matter is proposed to make up nearly quarter of all mass in the universe, so to find its presence, the Euclid mission will measure the bending caused by such matter to the light received from galaxies. The bending is so small that if radiation damage is not understood and dealt with, the damage could mask the effects Euclid is looking for.

Just like the Euclid mission, JUICE, another ESA mission due to launch 15 years from now, will spend seven years travelling to Jupiter, resulting in already heavily damaged sensors before science is even able to start. What makes matters worse is that Jupiter has trapped radiation belts of high energy electrons, creating an extremely harsh environment to perform science in.

As we continue to develop deeper understanding of effects in sensors, we can extend the useful lifetime of space missions and perform more accurate science. Next, read this: Cleaning up space debris with sailing satellites. Keith Cooper explores how they do it. Space is not a friendly place for instruments to operate. Cosmic radiation fries their electronics; they have to cope with extreme variations in temperature; and for missions venturing close to the Sun, the solar wind can gradually erode their exposed optical surfaces.

Furthermore, several of these instruments need to be actively chilled to as low as K. Some planetary environments are even harsher. Only a handful of spacecraft have ever successfully landed there, and those that did survived only a few hours inside bulky pressure vessels before succumbing to the unforgiving conditions.

If we want to send spacecraft there again, we will need to find alternative solutions. The combination of several different extreme conditions poses tough challenges for instrument designers.

However, careful planning, design and testing can minimize the hazards, while ingenious modelling can help scientists and engineers identify potential problems early.

This model indicates which parts of the spacecraft become hottest, which parts remain coolest and which areas can safely be used to shed heat. Care has to be taken to ensure that one instrument does not shed excess light and heat in a way that warms its neighbours. Only when this is achieved is it possible to begin building the instruments. Most of the instruments on Solar Orbiter, for example, sit behind a 3.

Because the shield itself can expand with heat, these doors are deliberately oversized so that lines of sight to instruments are not blocked. Visible and infrared frequencies, which carry much of the heat, pass straight through the mirror and back out into space.

What happens when there is no way of hiding from the heat, like on Venus?