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THE NEW €1.5 million headquarters of Irish space technology firm EnBio was officially opened in Clonmel yesterday.
The Space Technology Centre – whose management team all graduated from Irish universities – will employ 12 new people between now and the end of 2016 as staff work to produce vital parts for a European Space Agency mission to the Sun.
The firm will be producing ‘next generation’ surface treatments designed to cope with the harsh conditions of outer space.
They’ll be used on board the ESA ‘Solar Orbiter’ which has been scheduled to launch in 2018. The spacecraft will carry a suite of 10 state-of-the art instruments to observe the surface of the star, and study the changes that take place in solar winds.
EnBio’s coatings will protect all of the sun-facing surfaces of the ESA craft, allowing scientists to get closer to the sun than any previous mission – and in the process making the firm’s coating the closest man-made object to the Sun.
How does it work?
Well, the company plans use a patented technology platform, CoBlast – invented by CEO John O’Donoghue – to produce a unique ‘SolarBlack’ product, which it will then deploy on the satellite surfaces.
Here comes the science…
CoBlast replaces the oxide layer of a metal – typically aluminium or titanium – with a thin surface which fuses to the metal in a single, environmentally friendly process step, requiring no chemicals or thermal input.
The firm has been “setting new records” for getting a technology from concept to flight-qualified status by the ESA, O’Donoghue said.
A complementary ceramic surface, ‘SolarWhite’, reflective white coating, has also been developed by EnBio.
Following its launch in three year’s time, the Solar Orbiter will take another three-and-a-half years to reach its operational orbit around the Sun, modifying its path by making close flybys of Earth and Venus.
The orbit will take it to within 43 million km of the Sun – closer than Mercury, the innermost planet.
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I hope the Dog is ok???.
I presume he was given a Tetanus shot after biting them $cum….
That’s what these dogs are trained to do in unruly situations. Protecting their handlers is a natural instinct and to do the job that they are trained to do.
I hope that the dog isn’t punished and put down or carted off to some unknown place and used as a ‘guard dog’ to patrol some dump!
‘ Atta Boy….good doggie. LOL .
Ruff day at the office
Bite first…. Ask questions later….!
Imagine what the poor staff are subjected to on occasions like that reported. Maybe they should all be issued with a police dog?
People in the south don’t know how lucky they are not having to deal with thousands of these marches every year. Fascist nutjobs and their pisshead hangers on cause chaos everywhere they go and everyone has to put up with it because it’s supposed to be traditional. These people are less than 10% of the population but they hold everyone else hostage. Total joke!
Flegs and marches and buckfast and drugs. Sure it’s their TRADITION!!!
‘Dog bites man’, not a story. ‘Man bites dog’, now that would be a story…
“Man bites dog” is a film…… dark dark film
Incidentally the media are not mentioning that yesterday was the ‘start’ of the marching season, so thousands of drunken loyalists were probably roaming the streets. And I love when they say the start of the season as if we ever get even a month’s break from the drivel.
Is the incident out on video yet ? Its always so disappointing when you see police dogs in action on TV and they aren’t allowed to bite the bum off a crim.
A snap decision, I presume!
The only real question is were those bitten taking part in the disorder or just caught up at the start and hadn’t time or opportunity to get away. If first then good, it’s not a news item. If the latter then possibly questions should be asked ref the control the handler had on his/her dog.
Be very surprised if they were innocent as generally muzzles don’t come off until its clear that innocents are cleat and dogs are kept close to the handler and a distance away.
II hope they sue the police for damages.
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