Gaia checks out of antenna trials
The main antenna of the Gaia billion-star surveyor has been put through its paces ahead of its launch in 2013 within an acoustic test chamber. The antenna will send Gaia’s precious science data to Earth from its location 1.5 million kilometers away. Over five years, Gaia is expected to download 200TB of data, the equivalent of nearly 45,000 standard DVDs, as it makes precise measurements of the positions of a billion stars.
The information will be used to create a 3D map of stars in the Milky Way, revealing information about its composition, formation and evolution. Since the spacecraft rotates in space, a complex antenna steered electronically is required to ensure the beam is always directed towards Earth.
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