Analysis
ACAL Technology waits for news of Rosetta Spacecraft
ACAL Technology is entering the final five years of a fifteen-year wait confident that a custom heater mat, designed in collaboration with Honeywell, will fulfill its vital role in allowing the Rosetta spacecraft to sample the surface of the comet, Churyumov-Gerasimenko.
RoseWork began on the design of the custom heater mat in 1999, five years before the launch of the Rosetta spacecraft and fifteen years before it is due to land on the Churyumov-Gerasimenko comet, in November 2014. Located in the Modulus Ptolemy gas analyser, on-board the Rosetta lander, the mat is designed to trigger the actuator which releases high-purity helium, forcing cometary matter to pass through the gas analyser.
Conventionally, the helium would be released from titanium tanks via a valve. However, during the extreme period of dormancy, between the launch and the landing, a mechanical valve could have allowed sufficient leakage of helium to compromise the collection of material. Instead, the titanium tanks were sealed with a frangible pillar. This fragile, hollow seal will be broken using an actuator manufactured in a Shape Memory Alloy (SMA), which snaps open to its original shape when heated to its activation point.