PLATO - PLAnetary Transits and Oscillations of stars - is a Cosmic Vision 2015-2025 M-class mission candidate of
ESA's future Science and Robotic Exploration programme. The scientific goals are to detect exoplanetary transits and to
characterize the parent stars using astero-seismology. This is achieved through high-accuracy, high time-resolution
photometry in the visible waveband. Assessment studies were carried out for all M-class missions during 2008-2009 in
order to design a basic spacecraft configuration and identify critical areas. Following the down-selection in the beginning
of 2010, PLATO will enter into the Definition Phase, in which the spacecraft design will be consolidated and optimized.
The proposed payload will use a multi-aperture approach in which the combined observations of 34 telescopes with
individual pupil sizes of ~120 mm will produce highly accurate light curves of the target stars. Since the orbits of the
exoplanets should preferably be in or close to their habitable zone, an observation period of several years per sky field is
required to detect repeated transits of the exoplanets around the parent stars. This requires a stable spacecraft with a high
pointing accuracy and a benign operating environment. It is foreseen to launch PLATO using a Soyuz 2-1b via a direct
insertion into a large amplitude orbit around Sun-Earth L2. This paper will give an overview of the PLATO mission and
the planned activities during the Definition Phase.
PLATO is a candidate of the European Space Agency's Science programme Cosmic Vision 2015-2025. "PLAnetary
Transits and Oscillations of stars" aims to characterise exoplanetary systems by detecting planetary transits and
conducting asteroseismology of their parent stars. This is achieved through high-precision photometry (visible
waveband). PLATO is currently in assessment phase, which was started with an internal study in ESA's Concurrent
Design Facility (CDF). Two phase-A, parallel industrial studies with 12-months durations are being conducted until July
2009. The objectives of these studies are to understand the critical areas inherent to this mission and assess the trade-offs
in order to define a baseline concept that optimises scientific return while minimising complexity and risk and meeting
the applicable programmatic constraints. PLATO will operate in a large-amplitude orbit around Sun-Earth L2 where it
will observe targets for several years in order to characterise the exoplanetary transits. To observe enough stars (with
focus on Sun-like cool dwarfs) to maximize the number of transit detections, a large field-of-view (FoV) is required as
well as a sufficiently high collecting area. PLATO will achieve this objective by utilizing several smaller telescopes
instead of one large telescope. Several different optical designs, both reflective and refractive, are being studied. Due to
the large number of simultaneously observed stars the spacecraft will require a high degree of autonomy and adequate
on-board processing capability. Moreover, the stars must be monitored with high accuracy, which means that the
spacecraft must provide a stable environment in terms of pointing stability and thermal environment. This paper
summarises the results of the assessment studies.
KEYWORDS: Stars, Telescopes, Space telescopes, Charge-coupled devices, Point spread functions, Planets, Exoplanets, Space operations, Sensors, Signal to noise ratio
In order to better understand the properties of exoplanetary systems, the Cosmic Vision mission "PLAnetary Transits and
Oscilliations of stars" (PLATO) will detect and characterise exoplanets using their transit signature in front of a large
sample of bright stars as well as measuring the seismic oscillations of the parent star of these exoplanets. PLATO is a
potential mission of the European Space Agency's Science programme Cosmic Vision 2015-2025, with a planned launch
by the end of 2017. The mission will be orbiting the Sun-Earth second Lagrangian point, which provides a stable thermal
environment and maximum uninterrupted observing efficiency. The payload will consist of a number of individual
catadioptric telescopes, covering a large field-of-view on the sky. It will allow for continuous observation of predetermined
star fields in order to detect many exoplanetary systems as well as smaller exoplanets with longer orbital
periods. Such performance is achieved by high time-resolution, high precision, and high duty-cycle visible photometry
using catadioptric telescopes with CCD detectors. In order to fulfill the specific science requirements, special attention is
being paid to the opto-mechanical design of the payload, in order to maximize the field-of-view and throughput of the
optical system, while minimizing the image distortion, mass and volume of each telescope to ensure compatibility with
the launcher's maximum payload capability. Ground-based observations will complement the observations made by
PLATO to allow for further exoplanetary characterization. The paper provides a summary of the preliminary results
achieved by the ESA internal pre-assessment study.
KEYWORDS: Space telescopes, Telescopes, Space operations, Sensors, Polarization, Interferometers, Far infrared, Microwave radiation, Mirrors, Cryogenics
The response to the ESA Cosmic Vision 2015-2025 Call for Proposals has confirmed a strong interest in the scientific
community for far-IR and sub-mm space science missions. Such missions would build on the heritage of projects such as
ISO, Akari, Planck, Herschel and Spitzer, with even more demanding requirements and ambitious science goals. The
paper, based on the results obtained during two ESA Technology Reference Studies, analyses the requirements of
mission studies such as the Far IR Interferometer and the Cosmic Microwave Polarisation Mapper, identifying the main
technical challenges and critical technology developments required in order to achieve an adequate level of technology
readiness in the future.
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