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    Payload

    Schematic figure of one of the cameras of the PLATO spacecraft. Credit: PLATO Mission Consortium

    The key scientific requirement to detect and characterise a large number of terrestrial planets around bright stars determined the design of PLATO's payload module. The module provides a wide field-of-view (FoV) to maximise the number of the sparsely distributed bright stars in the sky with one pointing, and allows the satellite to cover a large part of the sky. In addition, it provides the required photometric accuracy to detect Earth-sized planets and a high photometric dynamic range, allowing astronomers to observe bright stars (mV < 11) as well as fainter stars down to V-magnitude of 16. This performance is achieved by a multi-telescope instrument concept, which is novel for a space telescope.

    The payload consists of 24 'normal' cameras with CCD-based focal planes, operating in white light. They will be read out with a cadence of 25 s and will monitor stars with mV > 8. Two additional 'fast' cameras with high read-out cadence (2.5 s) will be used for stars with mV ~4–8.  The 'normal' cameras are arranged in four groups of six. Each group has the same field-of-view but is offset by a 9.2° angle from the payload module +Z axis, allowing astronomers to survey a total field of about 2250 deg² per pointing, but with different sensitivities over the field.

    The ensemble of instruments is mounted on an optical bench. The cameras are based on a fully dioptric design with 6 lenses. Each camera has an 1100 deg² field-of-view and a pupil diameter of 120 mm and is equipped with a focal plane array of 4 CCDs each with 4510×4510 pixels of 18 μm size, working in full frame mode for the 'normal' camera and in frame transfer mode for the 'fast' cameras.

    Payload Consortium contributions
     

    Principal Investigator DLR, Germany
    PMC management
    System engineering
    Performance monitoring & assessment
    Data Processing System
    Fast Electronics Unit including Fine Guidance System
    Telescope Optical Units thermal hardware
    Front-end Electronics of the fast telescopes
    DLR, Germany
    Telescope Optical Units
    Instrument Control Unit
    ASI, Italy
    Focal Plane Assemblies
    Main Electronic Unit
    Contribution to camera integration, testing and calibration
    MINECO, Spain
    Software data processing for the normal telescopes
    Contribution to Fast Front-End Electronics
    Contribution to camera integration, testing and calibration
    CNES, France
    Optical Ground Support Equipment
    Multilayer Insulation
    FCT, Portugal
    Front-End Electronics of the normal telescopes UK Space Agency
    Contribution to camera integration, testing and calibration SRON, The Netherlands
    Contribution to the Broadband Filtering Coating of the fast telescopes SNSB, Sweden
    Router and Data Compression Unit in the Instrument Control Unit
    On-board data compression algorithms
    AASA/FFG, Austria
    Camera integration, testing and calibration Belgian Federal Science Policy Office
    Telescope Optical Units mechanical structure Swiss Space Office


    Last Update: 05 February 2019

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    • Images And Videos
    • Schematic figure of one of the cameras of the PLATO spacecraft

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