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Sunshade Check
Jack Ercol, MESSENGER lead thermal
engineer from the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory,
checks the condition of the spacecraft’s ceramic-fabric
sunshade after testing in the thermal-vacuum chamber at NASA’s
Goddard Space Flight Center. The tests showed that the sunshade,
approximately 8 feet tall and 6 feet wide, will keep MESSENGER’s
instruments and systems at room temperature while the spacecraft
orbits the planet closest to the Sun.
Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins
University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of
Washington
