PLATO (PLAnetary Transits and Oscillations of stars)1 is the M3 class ESA mission dedicated to the discovery
and study of extrasolar planetary systems by means of planetary transits detection. PLATO Payload Camera
units are integrated and vibrated at CSL before being TVAC tested for thermal acceptance and performance
verification at 3 different test facilities (SRON, IAS and INTA). 15 of the 26 Flight Cameras were integrated,
tested and delivered to ESA for integration by the Prime between June 2023 and June 2024, with the remaining
flight units to be tested by the end of 2024. In this paper, we provide an overview of our serial testing approach,
some of the associated challenges, key performance results and an up-to-date status on the remaining planned
activities.
The Venus Emissivity Mapper (VEM) and the VenSpec-M on the NASA VERITAS and ESA EnVision missions, respectively, are multi-spectral imaging systems designed specifically for mapping the surface of Venus using near-infrared atmospheric windows around 1 μm. VEM/VenSpec- M will provide the first global map of rock types on the surface of Venus as well as constant monitoring for volcanic activity at global (VERITAS) and regional/local (EnVision) scales. The VEM/VenSpec- M verification plan ensures accurate performance and science return of the instrument and includes on-ground and in-flight instrument calibrations as well as supporting laboratory measurements for calibration and scientific data analysis. Pre-flight calibrations encompass geometric, spectral, and radiometric calibrations based on the MERTIS (on BepiColombo) calibration campaign and pipeline. Laboratory work involves the creation of spectral libraries of increasing complexity by measuring the emissivity of Venus analogs under Venus surface conditions. These data will distinguish between basalt and felsic rock types on the Venus surface and may enable the identification of intermediate compositions based on iron content. Data analysis uses machine learning models for classification between basalt and felsic rocks and regression to predict FeO content using laboratory calibration data. The data verification plan outlined here not only provides fundamental data needed for VEM/VenSpec-M, but can also be adapted to create data products suitable for calibration of the VenDi (Venus Descent Imager) instrument on the DAVINCI mission. Such use of an integrated calibration plan will benefit all three missions and produce coordinated results that can be directly compared.
Diffractive Optical Elements (DOEs) are commonly used in the photonics community for several purposes, such as geometrical calibration of cameras,1 medical treatments, lithography, LIDAR applications. In the context of the optical alignment and integration of the RAman Spectrometer for MMX (RAX),2 a DOE was included in the test setup with the goal of providing a clear figure of merit to optimize the focusing of a dioptric lens objective on to the spectrometer detector. This Raman spectrometer will be integrated later this year in a small Rover on-board the Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) mission led by JAXA, and will operate on Phobos’ surface to characterize the different materials composing Phobos’ soil. To achieve this, the optical design of RAX is very challenging in terms of performance to reach in very limited volume and mass. As described in Ref. 2, the optical alignment and integration of RAX was a very challenging exercise, requiring several optical setups and methods. The usage of a DOE was introduced to solve a classical problem during the integration of a camera: how to integrate both the optical objective (lens assembly) and the detector to ensure that both the optical focal plane and the detector sensitive plane are co-planar. When illuminated by a collimated laser beam, the implemented DOE generates a regular pattern of collimated beams with well-known deviation angles from the input beam. It acts as a 2D diffraction grating, and generates a pattern field which covers the entire field of view of our camera. Thanks to this property, the Camera Interface Objective of RAX could be successfully positioned and oriented with respect to the detector mechanical interface. It was achieved by acquiring successive images of the DOE pattern with controlled defocused laser beam illuminating it. We were then able to compute the equivalent mechanical defocus needed to maximize the image quality. This maximizes the overall instrument performance and will ensure best possible scientific measurement on Phobos.
The PLAnetary Transits and Oscillations of stars mission (PLATO) is the M3 mission in ESA’s Cosmic Vision 2015-2025 Programme, see Rauer et al. (2014).1 The PLATO mission aims at detecting and characterizing extrasolar planetary systems, including terrestrial exoplanets around bright solar-type stars in the habitable zone. In order to achieve its scientific objectives, PLATO must perform uninterrupted high precision photometric monitoring of large samples of stars during long periods to detect and characterize planetary transits. The scientific payload of PLATO, developed and provided by the PLATO Mission Consortium (PMC) and ESA, is based on a multi-telescope configuration consisting of 24 “Normal” (N) cameras and 2 “Fast” (F) cameras, so as to provide simultaneously a large field of view and a large collecting aperture. The optical design is identical for all cameras and consists of a 6-lens dioptric design with a 120 mm entrance pupil and an effective field of view of more than 1000 deg2. This concept results in an overall field-of-view of more than 2000 deg², spread over 104 CCDs of 20 mega-pixels each. Associated to very accurate pointing and alignment requirements, this is a real challenge to define and breakdown precise specifications to several sub-systems in order to ensure that this overall field of view budget is achieved and verified. We propose to go through the budget that was performed for the PLATO camera and to describe how we intend to satisfy this scientific requirement. To make it more challenging, it has to be taken into account that the PLATO spacecraft will have to rotate of 90° every three months without changing its field of view (due to its orbit in L2 and the sun illumination limitations). This has to be considered in the breakdown of the budget and design of all sub-systems. A consequence of this large field of view is the difficulty to reach very good and harmonious optical performances across the field, and in a realistic depth of focus. Therefore, the focusing budget is also very challenging for the development of the PLATO cameras. We will describe the way the PLATO’s camera focusing budget has been broken down into allocations and how it is planned to be verified. To ensure optimal performances in-flight, the PLATO cameras have the extraordinary capabilities to perform re-focusing using a high precision Thermal Control System (TCS). Each individual camera on the payload can be thermally controlled independently from its neighbor to reach its own optimal operational temperature. The different consequences of this concept into the budget allocations and sub-system development will be discussed.
PLATO - PLAnetary Transits and Oscillation of stars - is a medium-class mission in the European Space Agency (ESA) Cosmic Vision programme, whose launch is foreseen by 2026. The objective is the detection and characterization of terrestrial exoplanets up to the habitable zone of solar-type stars by means of their transit signature in front of a very large sample of bright stars. The seismic oscillations of the parent stars orbited by these planets is measured in order to understand the properties of the exoplanatory systems. The PLATO payload consists of an instrument with 26 cameras for star observation; 24 normal cameras grouped in four subsets with six cameras each and two fast cameras. Besides providing scientific data for very bright stars, the fast cameras also serve as two redundant Fine Guidance System (FGS) and will be an integral part of the Attitude and Orbit Control System (AOCS). This ensures a very high pointing precision which is needed to achieve a high photometric precision. Working as a star-tracker, the attitude calculation is based on guide star positions on the focal plane and their reference directions given by a star catalogue. Compared to predecessor missions like CoRoT, Kepler, or TESS, the precision of the fine guidance algorithm needs to be increased significantly. This is especially challenging as the optical design is identical for all cameras and optimized to meet the science objectives rather than to serve as a star-tracker. Therefore, a novel approach based on a Gaussian fit is proposed. The shown algorithm provides a noise optimal estimation of the guide star positions which propagates to an optimal attitude estimation. Although, computational more expensive than conventional methods, its suitability for a real-time on-board application is proven with an implementation on the target hardware. Furthermore, its robustness and precision is assessed theoretically and with simulated star images sequences.
The PLAnetary Transits and Oscillations of stars mission (PLATO) is the M3 mission in ESA’s Cosmic Vision 2015-2025 Programme. The PLATO mission aims at detecting and characterizing extrasolar planetary systems, including terrestrial exoplanets around bright solar-type stars in the habitable zone. In order to achieve its scientific objectives, PLATO must perform uninterrupted high precision photometric monitoring of large samples of stars during long periods to detect and characterize planetary transits. The PLATO light curves will also contain information on the seismic activity of the stars, which will lead to the determination of radii and ages of parent stars. The scientific payload of PLATO, developed and provided by the PLATO Mission Consortium (PMC), is based on a multi-telescope configuration consisting of 24 “Normal” (N) cameras and 2 “Fast” (F) cameras, so as to provide simultaneously a large field of view and a large collecting aperture. The optical design is identical for all cameras and consists of a 6-lens dioptric design with a 120 mm entrance pupil and an effective field of view of more than 1000 deg2. The calibration and characterization of PLATO’s cameras is a real challenge, especially in terms of quantities: there are 24 FMs + 2 Flight Spares + 2 Qualification Models and finally 1 EM to calibrate. In this context, the on-ground calibration and characterization plan of the cameras was developed to the strict minimum needed. This means that all the measurements that can be performed in-orbit will not be calibrated on-ground. Our aim is to give an overview of the on-ground activities planned in the coming years to calibrate, characterize and verify the PLATO’s cameras, both in terms of organization and technical solutions. In particular, a detailed description of the geometric calibration used for the Fine Guidance System (FGS) and the focusing calibration will be given. PLATO’s Cameras have indeed the unusual but powerful feature to use a temperature control system to refine their focus. A description of the in-flight calibration plan (including for example the repetition of the focusing calibration, the micro-scanning procedure to determine high-resolution PSFs) will then be given to get the full overview of the calibration, characterization and verification of PLATO’s cameras. Calibrating and verify so many cameras in space, without any calibration targets/sources on board, only using pointing capabilities of the satellite, stellar targets and advanced data processing is a real challenge for this mission. A particular attention will be given to the micro-scanning procedure and inversion techniques required for precise PSF Modelling.
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