A Dublin software company is helping the European Space Agency and NASA launch a mission to send a spacecraft towards the sun.
The Solar Orbiter spacecraft is being launched next Saturday, February 8 in Cape Carnival, Florida, where it will begin its long journey to the sun.
Various engineers have been working on the project, including a Malahide firm Captec.
The company has been working on the Solar Orbiter project since 2013, providing verification of the software that will guide and control the spacecraft when it's in flight.
Managing director Jon Kennedy says the company "has analysed each stage of the software development and has run independent tests simulating failures to check the spacecraft's reaction", which has led to corrections in operating procedures.
The Solar Orbiter aims to observe the sun's behaviour and take detailed photos of the solar poles for the first time. One goal is to learn how solar events impact Earth and its weather patterns.
This includes solar weather, particles generated by the sun that can effect the weather and electronic systems on Earth.
It will be observing the Sun at an orbit 2/3 closer than the Earth's, enduring temperatures of over 520 degrees Celcius on its titanium heat shields.
Captec has worked with the ESA on other projects over the years. The solar observatory, SOHO, was launched in 1995 with software assistance from Captec. It plans to stay in operation until 2022.
The north Dublin company also assisted the Rosetta mission, which successfully entered orbit around a comet in September 2016, launching a probe on its surface.
