The Atmospheric Remote-sensing InfraRed Large-survey (ARIEL) is a medium-class mission of the European Space Agency whose launch is planned by late 2029 whose aim is to study the composition of exoplanet atmospheres, their formation and evolution. The ARIEL’s target will be a sample of about 1000 planets observed with one or more of the following methods: transit, eclipse and phase-curve spectroscopy, at both visible and infrared wavelengths simultaneously. The scientific payload is composed by a reflective telescope having a 1m-class primary mirror, built in solid aluminum, and two focal-plane instruments: 1. FGS (Fine Guidance System), performing photometry in visible light and low resolution spectrometry over three bands (from 0.8 to 1.95 µm) 2. AIRS (ARIEL InfraRed Spectrometer) that will perform infrared spectrometry in two wavelength ranges between 1.95 and 7.8 µm. This paper depicts the status of the TA (Telescope Assembly) electric section whose purpose is to deploy sensors, managed by the Telescope Control Unit, for the precise monitoring of the Telescope’s temperatures and the decontamination system, used to avoid the contamination of the optical surfaces (mirrors in primis).
Leonardo SpA is leading an Italian Space Industry Team, funded by ASI, collaborating to the ESA mission PLATO program for the realization of the 26 telescopes, which will fly on a single platform, aimed to discover, observe and analyze the exoplanets. The mission is based on a challenging telescope design with peculiar optical performance to be assured at very low operative temperature (-80°C). The “large” number of telescopes, produced in high rate (up to 3 telescopes every 2 months), is quite unusual for the production of scientific payloads. It has imposed a change with respect the prototypical manufacturing and test approach, generally a few flight units for space equipment, addressing the implementation of smart and fast methodologies for aligning and focusing each telescope, based on simulation of the peculiar “as-built” data. The opto-mechanical design of the telescope has been optimized to implement an industrial approach for all the manufacturing, assembly, integration and test (MAIT) phases. The number, production rate and the performance results of the flight units so far delivered by Leonardo to the PLATO Consortium, are validating the selected design solutions and all the selected MAIT processes. All the units already delivered present very similar performance, full specs and very close to the theoretical design.
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