The BepiColombo mission to Mercury has undergone a series of shock tests at ESA’s test facilities to replicate conditions it will experience during its intense ride into space. This video shows tests to mimic the moment it separates from the launch vehicle.

The spacecraft will be connected to the upper stage of an Ariane 5 rocket when it blasts off from Earth in 2015. Once the upper stage and its cargo have reached orbit, the pair will separate.

This is achieved via a pyrotechnic device that will fire open a clamp band, allowing springs to push the spacecraft safely away from the upper stage.

The firing of the pyrotechnic device causes a mechanical shock that transmits through the spacecraft.

To ensure the components of BepiColombo will survive these shocks, and others that occur at fairing opening, rigorous assessments are being carried out at the spacecraft test facilities at ESTEC, ESA’s technical centre in Noordwijk, the Netherlands.

To simulate the launch vehicle separation, the spacecraft structural and thermal test model was suspended from an overhead crane above blocks of foam rubber.

Compressed gas, rather than a pyrotechnic device, opened the clamp and the launch vehicle assembly unit dropped onto the cushioned surface.

At the same time, a number of accelerometers mounted on the spacecraft measured the effect of the shock.

Credits: ESA

Tags:   ESA European Space Agency European Space Agency ESTEC BepiColombo Shock tests

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The remains of comet ISON at 07:18 UT on 29 November, as seen in SOHO's LASCO C3 field of view after its close encounter with the Sun the previous evening.

Credit: SOHO (ESA & NASA)

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Full-frame NAVCAM image taken on 7 August 2014 from a distance of about 83 km from comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko.


Credit: ESA/Rosetta/NAVCAM, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO

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The Moon rising above the Pacific at 22:06 UTC, 4 March 2005, just three minutes before the point of closest approach during Rosetta's Earth fly-by.

More Rosetta flyby images: www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Highlights/Roset...

Credit: European Space Agency, ESA

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Full-frame NAVCAM image taken on 27 July 2014 from a distance of about 2540 km from comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. The image has been processed using an interpolation technique and the resolution has been increased from 1024 x 1024 to 10240 x 10240 pixels.

Credit: ESA/Rosetta/NAVCAM

Tags:   Rosetta comet 67P 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko

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