September 30th, 2008 Patrick Levacher. Plato Instrument System Group

September 30th, 2008 Patrick Levacher. Plato Instrument System Group ongoing activities (1) System Group at instrument level since mid of June: Claude Catala (LESIA), PI, and Magali Deleuil (LAM), co-PI Patrick Levacher (LAM), Project Manager, Gerard Epstein (LESIA), System Engineer, Lucien Hill (LAM), Optics Expert, Alain Semery (LESIA), Thermo-mechanics Expert, Reza Samadi (LESIA), Data Processing Expert, Christophe Cara (CEA/Sap), Detector and Electronics Expert, Philippe Plasson (LESIA), Software System Expert. The co-Is of the laboratories involved in the system studies, as well as the CNES representative, are not considered as members, but are permanent guests to the meetings

September 30th, 2008 Patrick Levacher Plato Instrument System Group ongoing activities (2) System Group Core group with a few specialists, located in only two places, Paris (LESIA and CEA/Sap) and Marseille (LAM), for an good efficiency, Periodic meetings, every two or three weeks, Brainstorming type meetings on a few predefined subjects The Plato Instrument System Group will give in the next few weeks, the sub-systems technical requirements to the co-Is laboratories involved in the system studies. Drawing up and updating of the performance and technical budgets

September 30th, 2008 Patrick Levacher Plato Instrument System Group ongoing activities (3) During summer Understand the ESTEC CDF design  Considered as a reference design,  Identify the possible improvements, Understand the photometry by mask  Key point for the performances,  Sensitivity to the troublemakers,  Give the optical requirements (PSF size, shape, …) Presently Optical requirements for a new full refractive concept CCD temperature, radiations effects, science needs, … possibility of relaxation? On board Data Processing, list of final products (light curves, images…), identification and list of all the needed processes to obtain these products

September 30h, 2008 Patrick Levacher Plato Instrument System Group future activities Change some sub-systems in the ESTEC CDF design, try to improve the performances :  Baseline : we will adopt the same CCD (3584² x 18µm) in the future designs,  Revisit the optical concept, a full refractive optics seems to be a promising solution,  Revisit the Focal Plane Assembling cooling concept, presently through the optics,  Revisit the mechanical implementation on the optical bench, depending of the optical design, and the thermal concept,  Find a best compromise between number of light curves / number of images / sampling time / volume of telemetry  Dimensions of the data processing electronics