Building precise 3D models for RAL Space’s SCOPE project

Did you know that the UK’s Met Office provides a space weather forecast alongside its usual terrestrial weather report?

Although space weather may seem like a far-off topic, the UK acknowledges the increasing risk it poses to our technology and potentially our health.

Coronal mass ejections (CMEs) from the Sun are responsible for the most severe effects of space weather.

Thanks to Earth’s magnetosphere, an expansive magnetic field generated by iron in the planet’s core, much of the solar wind that travels from the Sun is prevented from entering our atmosphere.

However, that does not mean we are completely immune to the negative effects of CMEs, which can include radio blackouts, interference with important electrical systems, and can even endanger astronauts currently in space.

Mitigating the effects of the space weather that does reach Earth is where proper monitoring comes into play, in particular, coronagraphs.

SCOPE or Solar Coronagraph for OPErations is the only space weather coronagraph under development in Europe – funded by the European Space Agency – ESA and the UK Space Agency’s National Space Innovation Programme.

Images produced by these wide-field, space-based, visible-light solar coronagraphs are a key ingredient in the forecasting models used to identify when CMEs will arrive at Earth.

CMEs are massive eruptions from the Sun that expel clouds of charged particles, including free electrons.

Coronagraphs detect CMEs by capturing sunlight that has passed through these electrons and been redirected by a process known as Thomson scattering.

Compared to direct sunlight, this process produces an extremely weak signal, so the instrument uses an occulter – a disc that blocks the Sun’s bright surface – to create an artificial eclipse.

This is not a simple process. Scientists at RAL Space are currently building an engineering qualification model of SCOPE so that the instrument can be tested for its ability to deal with unwanted sunlight, before and after vibration and shock testing.

Although some of our posts celebrate the more abstract uses of 3D printing (we love a photorealistic banana!), additive manufacturing has serious scientific applications.

These models, which are about one-third of the size of the real deal, will primarily be used for publicity purposes. But they are also a helpful hands-on tool for scientists examining the instrument design.

Printing both models took a whopping 120 hours, and this does not include the time our team takes to ensure a high quality finish.

This includes editing the original instrument design using CAD to ensure that the shrunken components would be recognisable when printed, then carefully sanding and painting each individual part after printing.

This sort of complex assembly is only possible thanks to the breadth and depth of knowledge of our team members.

Thank you to Sam Allum and Dave Wilsher in our Additive Manufacturing and Dimensional Metrology Facility.