- On behalf of the ESA, UCLouvain has developed antennas for the LaRa instrument that will go to Mars in 2020 to study the red planet’s habitability.
- From concept to creation, the antennas were manufactured in three months - quite a feat!
- The originality of UCLouvain’s concept: the antennas are produced from a single block of aluminium to achieve lightness (132g!), miniaturisation (hand-sized) and great resistance (particularly to day-night temperature variations of more than 200° C).
Dust storms, ionising cosmic radiation, extreme cold at night... ...
