Question: Have you built a big part of a satelite

Stephen O'Connor answered on 5 Mar 2019:

I have seen big parts of a satellite but I have not built a big part of one. I have worked on small parts though. There is a satellite called BepiColombo which was built by the European Space Agency and the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency on its way to the planet Mercury that I was lucky enough to work on. Mercury is the nearest planet to the Sun, and as a result of this, BepiColombo will get hotter and hotter on its journey. Materials can change shape and other properties when they experience high temperature. Many parts of the satellite are covered in a white paint that reflects sunlight in order to keep the satellite cool so that it stays the same shape and works properly. In the lab where I work I tested these white paints by placing them inside big vacuum chambers and exposing them to the environmental conditions that are close to Mercury and the Sun. The results of the tests showed that the paint could be used on the satellite to protect it from the Sun’s intense radiation!
If you want to know more about BepiColombo then follow this link: http://sci.esa.int/bepicolombo/