Objective of the MAP SPACE COATINGS treatment: The thermal finishing realized by the black MAP® PNC coating is intended to minimize the appearance of parasitic light rays in the Super Cam telescope but also to improve the infrared characteristics in the path optical. We had to carry out this application on several models (qualification model-QFM, flight model - FM) for which more than fifty individual parts had to be coated.

MAP® PNC: Matt black coating developed for thermal finishing and optical treatment of satellite equipment. This coating offers excellent thermo-optical properties, including a very low level of specular reflectance and very high resistance to ATOX / UV rays. It also has very good thermal stability at very low temperatures (-170 ° C) as well as a zero surface potential under electron beam irradiation. This coating is frequently used in optical parts of Earth observation satellites or space observation / exploration satellites (CSO, PICARD, PLEIADES, SPIRALE, PHEBUS, MIXS, MICROSCOPE, HELIOS 2B, ASNARO, SPOT 6, SPOT 7, MARCH ORBITER MISSION).

Constraints: The small dimensions of certain parts, led us to put a custom-made masking procedure (step consisting in sparing certain areas of the part, with a dimensional precision sometimes less than 1mm in order to guarantee homogeneous coverage (MAP coating thickness ® PNC).

The Midi Pyrénées Observatory or IRS, carried out the design of the parts under LESIA responsibility.