Analysis and description of the transport activities of focal plane assemblies for PLATO ESA mission

This paper is focused on the transport activities of the Focal Plane Assembly (FPA), one of the units that conform each camera in the payload of the PLATO Mission. The presented activities include a brief description of the transport container and the packing process, as well as the considerations on its design and the analysis of the complete system by a non-linear finite element model (FEM) in LS-DYNA, obtaining results of the displacement and accelerations of both the container and the FPA along its transport MGSE (mechanical ground support equipment). The verification of these results by a test is also included, as well as a comparison with the real transport data obtained from the datalogger included in the container.