LEONARDO S.p.A., leading an Italian Space Industry Team funded by ASI, collaborates with ESA PLATO (PLAnetary Transits and Oscillations of stars) mission to create 26 fully dioptric designed cameras for exoplanets discovery and analysis. This project requires exceptional optical performance at -80°C, combined with at an unusually high-rate delivery for scientific payloads (up to three telescopes every two months). This demand shifted manufacturing from a prototypical to an industrial approach, incorporating smart methodologies for aligning and focusing telescopes based on as-built data simulations. Each camera consists of a telescope optical unit (TOU) and a focal plane array (FPA), optimized to ensure consistent, high-quality performance under operational conditions. The performance of delivered flight units validates the design and manufacturing, assembly, integration, and test (MAIT) processes. This manuscript compares performance results at operational temperatures and provides the best image plane coordinates for FPA positioning, demonstrating the industrial process's success in ensuring homogeneous performance across all 26 TOUs.
Results of 26 Plato telescope optical units: high-reproducible industrial process for aligning, focusing, and performance at cryotemperature
International Conference on Space Optics — ICSO 2024 ; 2024 ; Antibes Juan-les-Pins, France
Proc. SPIE ; 13699 ; 136993G
2025-07-28
Conference paper
Electronic Resource
English
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