Preparing for Thermal Testing of Telescope
24 May 2006
The Planck telescope will be tested soon at low temperature (100-110K) in the Large Space Simulator (LSS) test facility at ESTEC, where it is planned to arrive on 15 June. The objective of this test is to measure the deformations of the fully integrated Planck Flight Model telescope at low temperatures with video-grammetry.This will be the first cold temperature test of the complete Planck telescope. The previous tests were limited to the telescope frame with dummy reflectors, performed at Alcatel Alenia Space, and the test of the reflectors alone at both Centre Spatial de Liège (CSL) and Alcatel Alenia Space.
The two images show the preparations of the Planck FM telescope at Alcatel Alenia Space in Cannes.
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Planck FM telescope mating. Front view (left) and rear view (right) | |
The Planck telescope is the black coloured frame with two upper struts supporting a panel (the Primary Reflector Panel). The reflectors are not yet integrated.
The telescope frame is supported by struts (the Cryo-Structure struts). At the bottom of these struts, a horizontal panel is added for thermally decoupling the conical structure (silver coloured) from the rest of the structure. The cone - which is a test support equipment - will be at room temperature during the test. The small light reflecting surfaces in the image on the right are the video-grammetry targets.
After completion of the test in the LSS at ESTEC, the Planck telescope will be transported back to Alcatel around 20 July. The FM telescope will then be integrated to the Planck FM spacecraft after the Planck HFI and LFI FPU instruments are integrated to the Planck Payload Module.
