Jay Clemens
QinetiQ has received a $2.9 million contract to build a baffle for the European Space Agency‘s Airbus-built Euclid space telescope.
The baffle is a black cylindrical structure and is built to prevent stray light from entering into the telescope’s optics, QinetiQ said Sept. 30.
ESA led the development of the Euclid mission with Thales Alenia Space Turin in an effort to probe the “dark energy†that some scientists believe is responsible for the expansion of the universe.
“The combination of the volume, mass and temperature in space requires a specially adapted model,” said Malika De Ridder, an engineer for QinetiQ.
“The module is (8.5 feet) long with a diameter of (5.9 feet), so a lot of technological ingenuity was needed to keep the weight down, which our engineers were able to achieve,” De Ridder added.
Euclid is scheduled for launch in 2020 and slated to remain in space for six years.
