Why was the news that QinetiQ had safely delivered four electric propulsion thrusters to the European Space Agency (ESA) great news for Barum & Dewar?

Because the bespoke custom designed containers used to ensure the thrusters were transported safely were both designed and manufactured by B&D in the UK. QinetiQ have a long established connection with B&D going back to when they were formally known as DERA and B&D have been entrusted with providing transit containers on many of QinetiQ’s most challenging and demanding programmes.

The thrusters are to be used on the BepiColombo mission to Mercury due for launchin 2017, the mission will be a European ‘first’, using a multiple ion engine propulsion module for interplanetary transfer. This delivery of the engines follows seven years of design and development work by QinetiQ. During the mission the thrusters will accumulate a total ‘on’ time of 20,000 hours, or 2.5 years.

Barum & Dewar have been involved in the design and manufacture of specialist transit containers for the Space sector for more than 20 years earning a reputation as the UK’s “go to” company for this type of requirement. There is no room for error when transporting Space hardware and B&D are able to draw upon years of experience to create cost effective, reliable and innovative container solutions.

Barum & Dewar are a leading UK manufacturer of complete packaging solutions to the Space and Aerospace sectors with over 20 years’ experience in this market. Capabilities include technical design services using the latest 3D CAD, manufacture of highly engineered and bespoke shipping containers, handling equipment, tarpaulin covers as well as off the shelf transit cases and containers.

Further information is available from our website www.barumanddewar.com