Swiss scientists to analyse returned satellite

On Tuesday, a retired European Space Agency research satellite called Eureca (European Retrievable Carrier) left the Lucerne Museum of Transport, where it had been on display, for the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology (EMPA) in Dübendorf. There, the satellite, which was launched into orbit on the Space Shuttle Atlantis on August 2, 1992, will be x-rayed by EMPA scientists. They are interested in discovering the effects of space travel – including  cosmic rays, extreme temperatures, and vibrations – on Eureca’s component parts. Antonia Neels, head of EMPA’s Center for X-Ray Analytics, said in a statement that this is a unique experiment for the federal laboratory. The three-ton craft, which suffered damage in space, will be x-rayed from every angle. EMPA’s special x-ray unit uses high-energy radiation that produces very high-resolution images, and is the only tool that can x-ray the satellite as a single object. The operation should ...