The cornerstone mission of the European Space Agency (ESA) scientific program Herschel/Planck is currently in the design manufacturing phase (phase C/D). The Planck satellite will be launched in 2007, together with Herschel. Located around the L2 Lagrange point, Planck aims at obtaining very accurate images of the Cosmic Wave Background fluctuations. Working up to high frequency (857GHz, i.e. 350μm wavelength), Planck is expected to give sharper images than the recently launched WMAP satellite. The Planck Telescope is an off-axis (unobscured) Gregorian antenna, with a 1.5m diameter pupil, a small F-number (~1) and a large FOV (+/-5° circular), owing to place a large number of detectors (bolometers) in the focal plane. This paper presents the optical design, performance, and verification concept of the Planck telescope. The custom made sequential Hartmann system is described. Working at 10.6μm, it will directly measure the wavefront of the telescope in cryogenic environment i.e. at operational conditions. This will be a major milestone in the spacecraft development.
Planck associated to FIRST is one of the ESA scientific missions belonging to the Horizon 2000 programme. It will be launched by an Ariane 5 in 2007. Planck aims at obtaining very accurate images of the Cosmic Microwave Background fluctuations, thanks to a spaceborne telescope featuring a wide wavelength range and an excellent control of straylight and thermal variations.
The telescope is based on an off-axis gregorian design consisting of two concave ellipsoidal mirrors with a 1.5-meter pupil, derived from radio frequency antenna, but with a very wide spectral domain which ranges from far infrared (350 μm) up to millimetric wavelengths (10 mm). Its field of view is large (10 degrees) owing to a high number of detectors in the focal plane. The short wavelength detectors (bolometers operating at 0.1 K) are located at the centre of the focal plane unit while the long wavelength ones (based on HEMT amplifier technology operating at 20 K) are located at the periphery.
The Planck telescope operates at a temperature below 60 K. This level is achieved in a passive way, i.e. using a cryogenic radiator. Furthermore, this radiator must accommodate a set of coolers dedicated to the focal plane unit, cooling one of the experiments down to 0.1 K.
The Planck mission leads to very stringent requirements (straylight, thermal stability) that can only be achieved by designing the spacecraft at system level, combining optical, radio frequency and thermal techniques in order to achieve the required performance.
The Ocean and Land Colour Imager (OLCI) is a high accuracy visible spectral imager selected as optical payload for the Sentinel 3 component of the GMES mission, to provide climatological data continuity with the previous ESA Envisat missions. OLCI is based on the very successful opto-mechanical and imaging design of MERIS. The instrument is a quasi-autonomous, self contained, visible-NIR push-broom imaging spectrometer and incorporates significant improvements when compared to MERIS.
The paper highlights the technical and programmatic challenges of the project, first results from the EM test activities and a projected flight model performance summary.
Planck associated to Herschel is one of the next ESA scientific missions. Both satellites will be launched in 2007 on a single ARIANE V launcher to the 2nd Lagrange libration point L2. Planck is a Principal Investigator Survey mission and the Planck spacecraft will provide the environment for two full sky surveys in the frequency range from 30 to 857 GHz. Planck aims to image the temperature anisotropies of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) over the whole sky with a sensitivity of ΔT/T = 2 .10-6 and an angular resolution of 10 arc-minutes. This will be obtained thanks to a wide wavelength range telescope associated to a cryogenic Payload Module.
The Planck mission leads to very stringent requirements (straylight, thermal stability) that can only be achieved by designing the spacecraft at system level, combining optical, radio frequency and thermal engineering. The PLANCK Payload Module (PPLM) is composed of a cryo-structure supporting and a 1.5 m aperture off-axis telescope equipped of two scientific instruments HFI (High Frequency Instrument) and LFI (Low Frequency Instrument). The LFI detectors are based on HETM amplifier technology and need to be cooled down to 20 K. The detectors for the HFI are bolometers operating at 0.1 K. These temperature levels are obtained using 3 different active coolers, a 20K sorption cooler stage, which need pre-cooling stages for normal operation (the coldest one is around 60 K). Finally, the telescope temperature must be lower than 60 K.
To meet those requirements, a specific cryo-structure accommodating a multi-stages cryogenic passive radiator has been developed. The design of this high efficiency radiator is basically a black painted open honeycomb surface radiatively insulated from the warm spacecraft by a set of angled shields opened towards cold space, also called "V-grooves". The coldest stage offers a ~1.5 W net cooling capacity around 55 K. Specific design are implemented to guarantee the straylight performance. The impacts of these elements on the Planck straylight performance have been assessed.
The Payload Module design, the thermal performances (temperature level and stability) and RF performances as well as the integration logic are presented in this paper.
Planck associated to FIRST is one of the ESA scientific missions belonging to the Horizon 2000 program. It will be launched by an Ariane 5 in 2007. Planck aims at obtaining very accurate images of the Cosmic Microwave Background fluctuations, thanks to a spaceborne telescope featuring a wide wavelength range and an excellent control of straylight and thermal variations.
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