PLATO (spacecraft)

Last updated
PLATO
Artist's impression of Plato.jpg
Artist's impression of PLATO
Mission typeSpace observatory
Operator ESA
Website sci.esa.int/web/plato/
Mission duration4 years (plus 4 years of possible mission extensions)
Spacecraft properties
Manufacturer OHB System AG
Launch mass2,134 kg (4,705 lb) [1] including 103 kg of propellant
Payload mass533 kg (1,175 lb) [1]
Power1,950 W [1]
Start of mission
Launch date2026 (planned)
Rocket Ariane 62 [2]
Launch site Kourou ELA-4
Contractor Arianespace
Orbital parameters
Reference system Sun–Earth L2
Main
TypeMultiple refractors [3]
Diameter26 telescopes, 120 mm each
Collecting area2,250 deg2
Wavelengths Visible spectrum: 500 to 1,000 nm
←  SMILE
ARIEL  →

PLAnetary Transits and Oscillations of stars (PLATO) is a space telescope under development by the European Space Agency for launch in 2026. [4] The mission goals are to search for planetary transits across up to one million stars, and to discover and characterize rocky extrasolar planets around yellow dwarf stars (like the Sun), subgiant stars, and red dwarf stars. The emphasis of the mission is on Earth-like planets in the habitable zone around Sun-like stars where water can exist in a liquid state. [5] It is the third medium-class mission in ESA's Cosmic Vision programme and is named after the influential Greek philosopher Plato. A secondary objective of the mission is to study stellar oscillations or seismic activity in stars to measure stellar masses and evolution and enable the precise characterization of the planet host star, including its age. [6]

Contents

History

PLATO was first proposed in 2007 to the European Space Agency (ESA) by a team of scientists in response to the call for ESA's Cosmic Vision 2015–2025 programme. [7] The assessment phase was completed during 2009, and in May 2010 it entered the Definition Phase. Following a call for missions in July 2010, ESA selected in February 2011 four candidates for a medium-class mission (M3 mission) for a launch opportunity in 2024. [7] [8] PLATO was announced on 19 February 2014 as the selected M3 class science mission for implementation as part of its Cosmic Vision Programme. Other competing concepts that were studied included the four candidate missions EChO, LOFT, MarcoPolo-R and STE-QUEST. [9]

In January 2015, ESA selected Thales Alenia Space, [10] Airbus DS, and OHB System AG to conduct three parallel phase B1 studies to define the system and subsystem aspects of PLATO, which were completed in 2016. On 20 June 2017, ESA adopted PLATO [11] in the Science Programme, which means that the mission can move from a blueprint into construction. Over the coming months, industry was asked to make bids to supply the spacecraft platform.

PLATO is an acronym, but also the name of a philosopher in Classical Greece; Plato (428–348 BC) was looking for a physical law accounting for the orbit of planets (errant stars) and able to satisfy the philosopher's needs for "uniformity" and "regularity". [7]

Management

The PLATO Mission Consortium (PMC) that is responsible for the payload and major contributions to the science operations is led by Prof. Heike Rauer at the German Aerospace Center (DLR) Institute of Planetary Research. The design of the Telescope Optical Units is made by an international team from Italy, Switzerland and Sweden and coordinated by Roberto Ragazzoni at INAF (Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica) Osservatorio Astronomico di Padova. The Telescope Optical Unit development is funded by the Italian Space Agency, the Swiss Space Office and the Swedish National Space Board. [3] The PMC Science Management (PSM), composed of more than 500 experts, is coordinated by Prof. Don Pollacco of the University of Warwick and provides expertise for:

Objective

The objective is the detection of terrestrial exoplanets up to the habitable zone of solar-type stars and the characterization of their bulk properties needed to determine their habitability. [1] [5] To achieve this objective, the mission has these goals:

PLATO will differ from the CoRoT, TESS, CHEOPS, and Kepler space telescopes in that it will study relatively bright stars (between magnitudes 4 and 11), enabling a more accurate determination of planetary parameters, and making it easier to confirm planets and measure their masses using follow-up radial velocity measurements on ground-based telescopes. Its dwell time will be longer than that of the TESS NASA mission, making it sensitive to longer-period planets.

Design

Model of Plato At Noordwijk 2024 088.jpg
Model of Plato

Optics

The PLATO payload is based on a multi-telescope approach, involving 26 cameras in total: 24 "normal" cameras organized in 4 groups, and 2 "fast" cameras for bright stars. [1] The 24 "normal" cameras work at a readout cadence of 25 seconds and monitor stars fainter than apparent magnitude 8. The two "fast" cameras work at a cadence of 2.5 seconds to observe stars between magnitude 4 to 8. [1] [13] The cameras are refracting telescopes using six lenses; each camera has a 1,100 deg2 field and a 120 mm lens diameter. Each camera is equipped with its own CCD staring array, consisting of four CCDs of 4510 x 4510 pixels. [1]

The 24 "normal cameras" will be arranged in four groups of six cameras with their lines of sight offset by a 9.2° angle from the +ZPLM axis. This particular configuration allows surveying an instantaneous field of view of about 2,250 deg2 per pointing. [1] The space observatory will rotate around the mean line of sight once per year, delivering a continuous survey of the same region of the sky.

Launch

The space observatory is planned to launch at the end of 2026 to the Sun-Earth L2 Lagrange point. [1]

Data release schedule

The public release of photometric data (including light curves) and high-level science products for each quarter will be made after six months and by one year after the end of their validation period. The data are processed by quarters because this is the duration between each 90-degree rotation of the spacecraft. For the first quarter of observations, six months are required for data validation and pipeline updates. For the next quarters, three months will be needed. [14]

A small number of stars (no more than 2,000 stars out of 250,000) will have proprietary status, meaning the data will only be accessible to the PLATO Mission Consortium members for a given time period. They will be selected using the first three months of PLATO observations for each field. The proprietary period is limited to 6 months after the completion of the ground-based observations or the end of the mission archival phase (Launch date + 7.5 years), whichever comes first. [14]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kepler space telescope</span> NASA space telescope for exoplanetology (2009–2018)

The Kepler space telescope is a defunct space telescope launched by NASA in 2009 to discover Earth-sized planets orbiting other stars. Named after astronomer Johannes Kepler, the spacecraft was launched into an Earth-trailing heliocentric orbit. The principal investigator was William J. Borucki. After nine and a half years of operation, the telescope's reaction control system fuel was depleted, and NASA announced its retirement on October 30, 2018.

Darwin was a suggested ESA Cornerstone mission which would have involved a constellation of four to nine spacecraft designed to directly detect Earth-like planets orbiting nearby stars and search for evidence of life on these planets. The most recent design envisaged three free-flying space telescopes, each three to four metres in diameter, flying in formation as an astronomical interferometer. These telescopes were to redirect light from distant stars and planets to a fourth spacecraft, which would have contained the beam combiner, spectrometers, and cameras for the interferometer array, and which would have also acted as a communications hub. There was also an earlier design, called the "Robin Laurance configuration," which included six 1.5 metre telescopes, a beam combiner spacecraft, and a separate power and communications spacecraft.

The Eddington mission was a European Space Agency (ESA) project that planned to search for Earth-like planets, but was cancelled in 2003. It was named for the noted astronomer Arthur Eddington, who formulated much of the modern theory of stellar atmospheres and stellar structure, popularized Albert Einstein's work in the English language, carried out the first test of the general theory of relativity, and made original contributions to the theory. It was originally planned for operation in 2008, but was delayed. The ESA website now records its status as cancelled.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite</span> NASA satellite of the Explorer program

Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) is a space telescope for NASA's Explorer program, designed to search for exoplanets using the transit method in an area 400 times larger than that covered by the Kepler mission. It was launched on 18 April 2018, atop a Falcon 9 launch vehicle and was placed into a highly elliptical 13.70-day orbit around the Earth. The first light image from TESS was taken on 7 August 2018, and released publicly on 17 September 2018.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">SPICA (spacecraft)</span> Proposed far-infrared space observatory

The Space Infrared Telescope for Cosmology and Astrophysics (SPICA), was a proposed infrared space telescope, follow-on to the successful Akari space observatory. It was a collaboration between European and Japanese scientists, which was selected in May 2018 by the European Space Agency (ESA) as a finalist for the next Medium class Mission 5 (M5) of the Cosmic Vision programme, to launch in 2032. At the time the other two finalists were THESEUS and EnVision, with the latter that was eventually selected for further development. SPICA would have improved on the spectral line sensitivity of previous missions, the Spitzer and Herschel space telescopes, between 30 and 230 μm by a factor of 50—100.

<i>Euclid</i> (spacecraft) European visible and near-infrared space observatory

Euclid is a wide-angle space telescope with a 600-megapixel camera to record visible light, a near-infrared spectrometer, and photometer, to determine the redshift of detected galaxies. It was developed by the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Euclid Consortium and was launched on 1 July 2023 from Cape Canaveral in Florida. The mission is named after the ancient Greek mathematician Euclid.

The Exoplanet Characterisation Observatory (EChO) was a proposed space telescope as part of the Cosmic Vision roadmap of the European Space Agency, and competed with four other missions for the M3 slot in the programme. On 19 February 2014 the PLATO mission was selected in place of the other candidates in the programme, including EChO.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fast Infrared Exoplanet Spectroscopy Survey Explorer</span> Proposed space telescope

Fast Infrared Exoplanet Spectroscopy Survey Explorer (FINESSE) was a NASA mission proposal for a space observatory operating in the Near-infrared spectrum for the Medium-Class Explorers program. The Principal Investigator was Mark Swain of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">CHEOPS</span> Optical space telescope (launched in 2019)

CHEOPS is a European space telescope. Its objective is to determine the size of known extrasolar planets, which will allow the estimation of their mass, density, composition and their formation. Launched on 18 December 2019, it is the first Small-class mission in ESA's Cosmic Vision science programme.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kepler-442b</span> Super-Earth orbiting Kepler-442

Kepler-442b is a confirmed near-Earth-sized exoplanet, likely rocky, orbiting within the habitable zone of the K-type main-sequence star Kepler-442, about 1,196 light-years (367 pc) from Earth in the constellation of Lyra.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Large Ultraviolet Optical Infrared Surveyor</span> Proposed NASA space telescope

The Large Ultraviolet Optical Infrared Surveyor, commonly known as LUVOIR, is a multi-wavelength space telescope concept being developed by NASA under the leadership of a Science and Technology Definition Team. It is one of four large astrophysics space mission concepts studied in preparation for the National Academy of Sciences 2020 Astronomy and Astrophysics Decadal Survey.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Habitable Exoplanets Observatory</span> Proposed space observatory to characterize exoplanets atmospheres

The Habitable Exoplanet Observatory (HabEx) is a space telescope concept that would be optimized to search for and image Earth-size habitable exoplanets in the habitable zones of their stars, where liquid water can exist. HabEx would aim to understand how common terrestrial worlds beyond the Solar System may be and determine the range of their characteristics. It would be an optical, UV and infrared telescope that would also use spectrographs to study planetary atmospheres and eclipse starlight with either an internal coronagraph or an external starshade.

MINERVA-Australis is a dedicated exoplanet observatory, operated by the University of Southern Queensland, in Queensland, Australia. The facility is located at USQ's Mount Kent Observatory, and saw first light in quarter two 2018. Commissioning of the facility was completed in mid-2019, and the facility was officially launched on 23 July 2019.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">ARIEL</span> Space telescope

The Atmospheric Remote-sensing Infrared Exoplanet Large-survey (ARIEL) is a planned space telescope and the fourth medium-class mission of the European Space Agency's Cosmic Vision programme. The mission is aimed at observing at least 1000 known exoplanets using the transit method, studying and characterising the planets' chemical composition and thermal structures. Compared to the James Webb Space Telescope, ARIEL will be a much smaller telescope with more observing time available for planet characterisation. ARIEL is expected to be launched in 2029 aboard an Arianespace Ariane 6 together with the Comet Interceptor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">European Space Agency Science Programme</span> Science programme

The Science Programme of the European Space Agency is a long-term programme of space science and space exploration missions. Managed by the agency's Directorate of Science, The programme funds the development, launch, and operation of missions led by European space agencies and institutions through generational campaigns. Horizon 2000, the programme's first campaign, facilitated the development of eight missions between 1985 and 1995 including four "cornerstone missions" – SOHO and Cluster II, XMM-Newton, Rosetta, and Herschel. Horizon 2000 Plus, the programme's second campaign, facilitated the development of Gaia, LISA Pathfinder, and BepiColombo between 1995 and 2005. The programme's current campaign since 2005, Cosmic Vision, has so far funded the development of ten missions including three flagship missions, JUICE, Athena, and LISA. The programme's upcoming fourth campaign, Voyage 2050, is currently being drafted. Collaboration with agencies and institutions outside of Europe occasionally occur in the Science Programme, including a collaboration with NASA on Cassini–Huygens and the CNSA on SMILE.

Cosmic Vision is the third campaign of space science and space exploration missions in the Science Programme of the European Space Agency (ESA). Formulated in 2005 as Cosmic Vision: Space Science for Europe 2015–2025, the campaign succeeded the Horizon 2000 Plus campaign and envisioned a number of missions in the fields of astronomy and solar system exploration beyond 2015. Ten missions across four funding categories are planned to be launched under Cosmic Vision, with the first being CHEOPS in December 2019. A mission to the Galilean moons (JUICE), the first deep space mission with an opportunistic target, and one of the first gravitational-wave space observatories (LISA), are planned for launch as part of the Cosmic Vision campaign.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Extreme-ultraviolet Stellar Characterization for Atmospheric Physics and Evolution</span>

The Extreme-ultraviolet Stellar Characterization for Atmospheric Physics and Evolution (ESCAPE) mission aims to find environments beyond Earth's solar system that might host planets with thick atmospheres to support life.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 PLATO Definition Study Report. ESA-SCI(2017)1. April 2017.
  2. ↑ "Mission Operations". ESA . 13 January 2021. Retrieved 5 March 2021.
  3. 1 2 "PLATO - Camera Telescope Optical Units". INAF- Osservatorio Astrofisico di Catania. 2014. Archived from the original on 25 October 2019. Retrieved 20 February 2014.
  4. ↑ PLATO spacecraft to find new Earth-like exoplanets. 21 June 2017, Max Planck Society.
  5. 1 2 Amos, Jonathan (29 January 2014). "Plato planet-hunter in pole position". BBC News . Retrieved 2014-01-29.
  6. ↑ "Plato". European Space Agency. European Space Agency . Retrieved 9 February 2017.
  7. 1 2 3 Isabella Pagano (2014). "PLATO 2.0". INAF- Osservatorio Astrofisico di Catania. Archived from the original on 3 July 2019. Retrieved 20 February 2014.
  8. ↑ Cosmic Vision M3 candidate missions presentation event. Announcement and registration. (21 January 2014)
  9. ↑ "ESA selects planet-hunting PLATO mission". European Space Agency. Retrieved 19 February 2014.
  10. ↑ "ESA Selects Thales Alenia Space for PLATO Phase B1 Study". Via Satellite. 12 January 2015. Retrieved 1 August 2015.
  11. ↑ "Gravitational wave mission selected, planet-hunting mission moves forward". sci.esa.int. Retrieved 2017-06-21.
  12. ↑ "PSM". 2018-05-03. Retrieved 2022-12-22.
  13. ↑ PLATO: detailed design of the telescope optical units. Authors: D. Magrin, Ma. Munari, I. Pagano, D. Piazza, R. Ragazzoni, et al., in Space Telescopes and Instrumentation 2010: Optical, Infrared, and Millimeter Wave, Edited by Oschmann, Jacobus M., Jr.; Clampin, Mark C.; MacEwen, Howard A. Proceedings of the SPIE, Volume 7731, pp. 773124-8 (2010)
  14. 1 2 "PLATO Science Management Plan" (PDF). ESA Cosmos. 11 October 2017. Retrieved 6 November 2019.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.