LEONARDO SpA is leading an Italian Space Industry Team, funded by ASI, collaborating to the ESA mission PLATO (PLAnetary Transits and Oscillation of stars). Its aim is the study of extrasolar planetary systems, with a focus on the discovery of exo-planets hosted by bright, nearby stars. PLATO is composed by 26 fully dioptric designed cameras, each composed of a telescope optical unit (TOU) and a focal plane array (FPA). The FPA is integrated with the TOU at ambient temperature by other Partners of the PLATO CAM-Team, although we determine the best image plane (BIP) of each TOU during test at cryo-vacuum operative conditions. This poses a metrology challenge at TOU manufacturing and testing facilities, with relatively high production rate of the flight units. At cold temperature (-80°C), the orientation and location of the FPA is found out as the BIP, meanwhile at ambient temperature, them are co-registered by using Hartmann masks. The results of this approach show a correspondence between the two analysis methods and give an input for subsequent FPA integration at PLATO CAM level.
Comparison of PLATO telescope optical unit test results at ambient and in cryo-vacuum environment for definition of focus plane
Space Telescopes and Instrumentation 2024: Optical, Infrared, and Millimeter Wave ; 2024 ; Yokohama, Japan
Proc. SPIE ; 13092 ; 130924Q
2024-08-23
Conference paper
Electronic Resource
English
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