“We have overcome many technical challenges on MIXS, but the hardest by far was the coating of gold onto titanium – vital for the thermal performance of the X-ray optics in their eventual orbit around Mercury. Several UK-based contractors tried and failed; sober advisors said the coating might not even be possible – but Epner Technology has delivered the complex gold-on-titanium structures that we needed.”
- George Fraser, University of Leicester, PI for the MIXS experiment on BepiColombo
