PLATO

PLATO is an ESA Cosmic Vision Mission M3 of, scheduled to be launched in 2024. PLATO (PLAnetary Transits and Oscillations of stars) will detect terrestrial exoplanets in the habitable zone of bright solar-type stars and characterise their bulk properties.

T

he PLATO instrument consists of 24 “normal” telescopes, operating in white light and providing a wide field of view (FoV). They will monitor stars with visual magnitude above 8.  Two additional “fast” cameras with higher read-out will be used to stabilize the satellite and monitor stars with magnitude between 4 and 8. 

PLATO Payload is developed by an European Consortium managed by OHB.

Thanks to Belspo funding via Prodex Programme, CSL contributes to PLATO development and is responsible for Camera EM (Electrical Model), QM (Qualify Model) and FM (Fly Model) assembly and integration; ambient alignment and mechanical tests.

These tasks include:

• The design, manufacturing, verification of the camera alignment MGSE and the specification of the OGSE and EGSE to be used for ambient alignment. Then for all cameras (1 STM (Structural Model) + 1 EM + 2 QM + 26 FM + 3 FS (Fly Spare) =  33 models   !! )

• The optical alignment and assembly of the PLATO camera detectors (FPA) with respect to the PLATO camera lens units (TOU).

• The final assembly

• The mechanical tests (Vibration & shock (STM & QM)) and physical property measurements.