Rosetta in test chamber

Rosetta’s Structural and Thermal Model – an initial replica of the flight model built to allow early testing – in the Large Space Simulator at the ESTEC Test Centre in 2000. The LSS is Europe’s largest thermal vacuum chamber. High-performance pumps can achieve a vacuum a billion times lower than standard sea level atmosphere, while liquid nitrogen circulated around the walls approximates the cryogenic temperatures of space. An array of powerful xenon lamps reflected in the mirror array can reproduce the unfiltered sunlight prevailing in space.