Status of the PLATO camera product assurance activities and their management
PLATO (PLAnetary Transits and Oscillations of stars) is an M3 medium-class space mission in ESA’s Cosmic Vision program devoted to detecting and studying a large number of extrasolar planetary systems. Its launch is planned for the end of 2026 from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana. The PLATO Payload consists of 26 wide field-of-view Cameras, each observing a specific part of the sky, associated data processing units and power supply units. The 24 Normal-Cameras will provide a very high-resolution photometric measurement of light from a large number of stars, while the other two Fast Cameras will provide the colour information and will deliver the pointing data to the AOCS (Attitude and Orbital Control System). The Cameras will be integrated into an optical bench. Each of them is composed of the Telescope Optical Unit (TOU), the Focal Plane Assembly (FPA) and the Front-End Electronics (FEE). Currently, the serial production of the Cameras has already started facing critical key points, non-conformities and challenging problems. The status of the Product Assurance activities during the serial production for which the first flight models are being delivered after the AIT phase is reported.
Authors
- Pierre Franco
- Holger Fischer
- Matteo Munari (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0990-050X)
- Giacomo Dinuzzi
- Simonetta Chinellato (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2249-8703)
- G. Nicolini (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9459-3841)
- Sean Madden
- Nicolas Gorius
- Elisabetta Tommasi
- Daniele Brienza
- Claudio Arena (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9193-3847)
- J Huesler
- Amaia Santiago
- Aline Hermans
- F. Borsa (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4830-0590)
- N. Auricchio (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4444-8651)
- Demetrio Magrin (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0312-313X)
- Flavia Calderone (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8856-6994)
- Francesco Santoli (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2493-0109)
- F. Cogato (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4632-6113)
- Alessio Aboudan
- Lionel Lourit
- Rayene Miss
- Ilina Kondofersky
- Nathalie Gorter
- Ricardo Bolt
- Giacomo Cherchi
- Fernando Conde García
- I. Pagano (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9573-4928)
Institutions
- University of Liège (BE)
- Agenzia Spaziale Italiana (IT)
- Institut d'Astrophysique Spatiale (FR)
- Instituto Nacional de Técnica Aeroespacial (ES)
- Osservatorio Astronomico di Padova (IT)
- Osservatorio di Astrofisica e Scienza dello Spazio
- Space Research Organisation Netherlands (NL)
- National Institute for Astrophysics (IT)
Publication Details
- Published
- 2024-08-23
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1117/12.3020476
- Citations
- 1
- Primary Topic
- Industrial Vision Systems and Defect Detection
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.35