Ariel is the M4 mission of the ESA’s Cosmic Vision Program 2015-2025, whose aim is to characterize by lowresolution transit spectroscopy the atmospheres of over one thousand warm and hot exoplanets orbiting nearby stars. It has been selected by ESA in March 2018 and adopted in November 2020 to be flown, then, in 2029. It is the first survey mission dedicated to measuring the chemical composition and thermal structures of the atmospheres of hundreds of transiting exoplanets, in order to enable planetary science far beyond the boundaries of the Solar System. The Payload (P/L) is based on a cold section (PLM – Payload Module) working at cryogenic temperatures and a warm section, located within the Spacecraft (S/C) Service Vehicle Module (SVM) and hosting five warm units operated at ambient temperature (253-313 K). The P/L and its electrical, electronic and data handling architecture has been designed and optimized to perform transit spectroscopy from space during primary and secondary planetary eclipses in order to achieve a large set of unbiased observations to shed light and fully understand the nature of exoplanets atmospheres, retrieving information about planets interior and determining the key factors affecting the formation and evolution of planetary systems.
ARIEL (Atmospheric Remote-sensing InfraRed Large-survey) is the fourth medium-class mission (M4) of the European Space Agency, part of the Cosmic Vision program, whose launch is planned by late 2029. ARIEL aims to study the composition of exoplanet atmospheres, their formation and evolution. The ARIEL’s target will be a sample of about 1000 planets observed with one or more of the following methods: transit, eclipse and phase-curve spectroscopy, in both visible and infrared light. The scientific payload is composed by a reflective telescope having a 1m-class elliptical primary mirror, built in solid Aluminum, and two focal-plane instruments: FGS and AIRS. FGS (Fine Guidance System)3 has the double purpose of performing photometry (0.50-0.55 µm) and low resolution spectrometry over three bands (from 0.8 to 1.95 µm) and, simultaneously, to provide data to the spacecraft AOCS (Attitude and Orbit Control System). AIRS (ARIEL InfraRed Spectrometer) instrument will perform IR spectrometry in two wavelength ranges: between 1.95 and 3.9 µm (with a spectral resolution R > 100) and between 3.9 and 7.8 µm with a spectral resolution R > 30. This paper provides the status of the ICU (Instrument Control Unit), an electronic box whose purpose is to command and supply power to the AIRS warm front-end (as well as acquire science data from its two channels) and to command and control the TCU (Telescope Control Unit).
PLATO (PLAnetary Transits and Oscillations of stars) is the ESA’s third medium-class mission (M3), adopted in 2017 under the Cosmic Vision 2015-2025 program after selection in 2014. Set for launch in 2026 from French Guiana’s Kourou, its primary goal is to discover and provide an initial bulk characterization of diverse exoplanets, including rocky ones, orbiting bright solar-type stars. Operating from a halo orbit around L2, 1.5 million km from Earth, PLATO’s Payload consists of 26 telescopes (24 normal, 2 fast) capturing images every 25 seconds and 2.5 seconds, respectively. These work in tandem with the AOCS (S/C Attitude and Orbit Control System). Each camera comprises four CCDs, yielding 20.3 MP images—81.4 MP per normal camera and 2.11 gigapixels overall. The onboard P/L Data Processing System (DPS) handles this huge data volume, employing Normal and Fast DPUs along with a single ICU. The ICU manages data compression, overseeing the P/L through a SpaceWire network. This paper provides a comprehensive overview of the Instrument Control Unit’s (ICU) status following the rigorous performance test conducted on the Engineering Model (EM) and its evolution during the development phases of the Engineering Qualification Model (EQM) and Proto-Flight Model (PFM). The content delineates the outcomes derived from the extensive performance test executed on the Engineering Model (EM), detailing the meticulous activities undertaken during the Assembly, Integration, and Verification (AIT/AIV) processes of the EQM. Additionally, it explains the status of the Proto-Flight Model (PFM), offering insights into its development path.
PLATO (PLAnetary Transits and Oscillations of stars) is the third medium-class mission (M3), selected by the European Space Agency (ESA) in 2014 and adopted in 2017 for the Cosmic Vision 2015-2025 scientific program. The launch is scheduled in 2026 from the French Guiana (Kourou) for a nominal in-orbit lifetime of 4 years plus up to 4 years of possible extension. The main purpose of the mission is the discovery and preliminary characterization of many different types of exoplanets down to rocky terrestrial planets orbiting around bright solar-type stars. The PLATO spacecraft will operate from a halo orbit around L2 (the Sun-Earth 2nd Lagrangian Point), a virtual point in space, 1.5 million km beyond Earth as seen from the Sun and its Payload will consist of 26 small telescopes (24 normal and 2 fast), pointing at the same target stars, that provide images every 25 seconds with the normal camera and every 2.5 seconds for the two fast cameras, operating in a close loop with the AOCS (S/C Attitude and Orbit Control System). Each camera (consisting of a telescope, the Focal Plane Assembly and its Front-End Electronics) will host four CCDs producing 20.3 megapixels images adding up to 81.4 megapixels per normal camera and 2.11 gigapixels for the overall Payload (P/L). This huge amount of data cannot be transmitted to the ground and need to be processed on-board by the P/L Data Processing System (DPS) made up of various processing electronic units. The DPS of the PLATO instrument comprises the Normal and Fast DPUs (Data Processing Units) and a single ICU (Instrument Control Unit), in charge of HW and SW lossless data compression and managing the P/L through a SpaceWire (SpW) network. In this paper we will review the status of the Instrument Control Unit (ICU) after its Critical Design Review (CDR) process, performed by ESA and PMC (PLATO Mission Consortium), the results of the performance test preliminary run on the Engineering Model (EM), waiting for the following Engineering and Qualification Model (EQM) and Proto-Flight Model (PFM), and the status of the early models development (Engineering Models 1 and 2, Mass and Thermal Dummy - MTD) that, along with the Boot SW (BSW) burning in PROM readiness, will enable the EQM manufacturing.
ARIEL (Atmospheric Remote-sensing InfraRed Large-survey) is a medium-class mission of the European Space Agency, part of the Cosmic Vision program, whose launch is foreseen by early 2029. ARIEL aims to study the composition of exoplanet atmospheres, their formation and evolution. The ARIEL’s target will be a sample of about 1000 planets observed with one or more of the following methods: transit, eclipse and phase-curve spectroscopy, at both visible and infrared wavelengths simultaneously. The scientific payload is composed by a reflective telescope having a 1m-class elliptical primary mirror, built in solid Aluminium, and two focal-plane instruments: FGS and AIRS. FGS (Fine Guidance System)1 has the double purpose, as suggested by its name, of performing photometry (0.50-0.55 μm) and low resolution spectrometry over three bands (from 0.8 to 1.95 µm) and, simultaneously, to provide data to the spacecraft AOCS (Attitude and Orbit Control System) with a cadence of 10 Hz and contributing to reach a 0.02 arcsec pointing accuracy for bright targets. AIRS (ARIEL InfraRed Spectrometer) instrument will perform IR spectrometry in two wavelength ranges: between 1.95 and 3.9 μm (with a spectral resolution R < 100) and between 3.9 and 7.8 μm with a spectral resolution R < 30. This paper provides the status of the ICU (Instrument Control Unit), an electronic box whose purpose is to command and supply power to AIRS (as well as acquire science data from its two channels) and to command and control the TCU (Telescope Control Unit).
PLATO is an M-class mission (M3) of the European Space Agency (ESA) whose launch is scheduled in 2026. The main aim of the mission is the detection and characterization of terrestrial exoplanets orbiting around bright solar-type star. The payload consists of 26 small telescopes: 24 “normal" cameras and 2 “fast" cameras. The huge amount of data produced by the PLATO telescopes is acquired and processed on-board by the Data Processing System (DPS) made up by various processing electronic units. The DPS of the PLATO instrument comprises the Normal and Fast DPUs (Data Processing Units) and a single ICU (Instrument Control Unit), are data routed through a SpaceWire network. The topic of this paper is the description of the architecture of the ICU and its role within the DPS, the status of the Avionic Validation Model (AVM) testing at the end of the Unit Preliminary Design Review (UPDR) performed by ESA and the results of the test of the first engineering model.
PLAnetary Transits and Oscillations of stars (PLATO) is a mission belonging to the European Space Agency Cosmic Vision program which objective is to find and study extrasolar planetary systems. PLATO is composed of 26 telescopes which will observe uninterruptedly Sun like stars in order to identify a periodic decrease of the star brightness indicating the possible transit of an exoplanet. The PLATO on-board Data Processing System (DPS) consists of an Instrument Control Unit (ICU) and several distributed Digital Processing Units (DPUs) connected together by a SpaceWire network. The ICU collects and compresses scientific data from the DPUs and it implements the main data interface towards the satellite for telemetry and telecommands. The focus of this paper is on the Boot Software (BSW) of the ICU. The BSW is executed on a LEON3FT processor to perform system initialization, hardware checks, telecommand/telemetry management and the start of the ICU Application Software (ASW) responsible of the PLATO sub-system management necessary for the mission objectives. ICU BSW is the only boot software on-board PLATO and its high criticality level requires stringent verification/validation activities and a high-quality control of the software product which is achieved through extensive quality plans, multi-level testing and static analysis of software code. This paper describes the BSW dependable architecture along with the methods used to achieve the required performances, including FDIR techniques. Two engineering models of the ICU are going to be developed and the foreseen functional and performance tests will be presented in this paper.
KEYWORDS: Stars, Field programmable gate arrays, Data processing, Planets, Cameras, Data communications, Control systems, Electronics, Aerospace engineering
PLATO1 is an M-class mission of the European Space Agency’s Cosmic Vision program, whose launch is foreseen by 2026. PLAnetary Transits and Oscillations of stars aims to characterize exoplanets and exoplanetary systems by detecting planetary transits and conducting asteroseismology of their parent stars. PLATO is the next generation planetary transit space experiment, as it will fly after CoRoT, Kepler, TESS and CHEOPS; its objective is to characterize exoplanets and their host stars in the solar neighbors. While it is built on the heritage from previous missions, the major breakthrough to be achieved by PLATO will come from its strong focus on bright targets, typically with mv≤11. The PLATO targets will also include a large number of very bright and nearby stars, with mv≤8. The prime science goals characterizing and distinguishing PLATO from the previous missions are: the detection and characterization of exoplanetary systems of all kinds, including both the planets and their host stars, reaching down to small, terrestrial planets in the habitable zone; the identification of suitable targets for future, more detailed characterization, including a spectroscopic search for biomarkers in nearby habitable exoplanets (e.g. ARIEL Mission scientific case, E-ELT observations from Ground); a full characterization of the planet host stars, via asteroseismic analysis: this will provide the Community with the masses, radii and ages of the host stars, from which masses, radii and ages of the detected planets will be determined.
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