Competition: Sexiest Space Exploration Hardware of 2013

Question

Disclaimer: The purpose of this thread is having a bit of end of the year festive season fun, nothing else. It can be construed as one of the most pointless exercises in misplaced vanity, in which case here's a link to our main site, thefinalfrontier.stackexchange.com for your convenience, or a proper giggle inducing fun. The choice is yours, but I assure you, nothing about it is sexist. We'll be exclusively rating the beauty of space exploration related hardware, not people or any other living beings, and the title is as such merely because I couldn't think of a better one at the time of writing this.

The rules:

• One photograph of the sexiest piece of space exploration hardware that you can think of and was active (in use, operational) in 2013 per post, with attributed author and a link to the source.
• One paragraph photograph caption describing your case why you believe your submission should be nominated for the title of The Sexiest Space Exploration Hardware of 2013.
• You may submit more than one nominee, each in their own new answer to this thread. No duplication of previous submissions allowed, even if your submission features a different photograph of the same hardware!
• Be appropriate. Posting photographs of indecently exposed pieces of space exploration hardware will result in immediate (might take a while™) deletion of the submission in question, and possible other submissions by the same author will be mass-downvoted by all three active participants in our Space Exploration Meta!
• Highest voted submission by the end of the year (might be extended for a month, if required) wins the title of The Sexiest Space Exploration Hardware of 2013, is indicated so by accepting the answer, and might feature in future designs of our off-site Space Exploration community promotion ads (no promise™).
• Have fun, vote on those beautiful pieces of space exploration hardware that are / will be submitted, and brag to your friends how awesome Space Exploration Stack Exchange is.

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And the winner is...:

The title of The Sexiest Space Exploration Hardware of 2013 goes to ESA’s Swarm Constellation. By the end of the competition date, the winning candidate received 8 upvotes by the pageant judging panel, consisting of all Space Exploration Stack Exchange members with the privilege to vote. Shared second place runner-ups are Voyager 1 and JPL's Opportunity aka Mars Exploration Rover - B (MER-B), both receiving 4 upvotes.

The competition will not be extended for another month as no new entries were submitted in the last two weeks of the competition. This concludes our Sexiest Space Exploration Hardware of 2013 competition. Thanks go to all that submitted your entries and everyone that voted on them! The Sexiest Space Exploration Hardware of 2014 competition will be announced at the start of December, 2014.

Answer 1

ESA’s Swarm Constellation:

    

This attractive trio of aerodynamically streamlined beauties is equipped with magnetorquers for precision attitude control and are now already deployed in high-inclination near-polar Low Earth Orbit with their slender four-metre long booms gently swung to deployed position, housing a sensitive scalar magnetometer at the end of each boom ensuring utmost magnetic cleanliness. The satellites are healthy and all their vital systems are now turned on, providing scientists with valuable data on Earth's magnetic field.

Image source: ESA Space In Images

Answer 2

JPL's Opportunity aka Mars Exploration Rover - B (MER-B)

This petite, sleek planetary explorer is still doing work in the field. From Opportunity's landing in 2004 to the present, this hardy rover has given us numerous breathtaking images of the Martian surface, and other observations using its array of spectrometers and its microscopic imager.

_{The above NASA image is in the public domain.}

Answer 3

Voyager 1

Voyager 1 is out of our heliopause, and though it is old, it is still operational .

_{The above NASA image is in the public domain.}