Speaker
Description
PLATO (PLAnetary Transits and Oscillations) is an M-class mission of the European Space Agency’s Cosmic Vision program, whose launch is foreseen by 2026. The mission objective is to detect and characterize exoplanets via the transit method as well as the characterization of stellar mass and age of their host stars through asteroseismology.
The PLATO payload is based on a multi-telescope approach, consisting of 24 normal cameras for stars fainter than magnitude 8 and two fast cameras for very bright targets with magnitude 4-8. In order to provide high precision photometry, a precise and stable pointing needs to be achieved. Therefore, the two fast cameras are also utilized as fine guidance sensors to provide highly accurate attitude measurements to the S/C AOCS.
Following a classic star tracker approach, the attitude is calculated on-board, using measured star directions and their correspondent nominal directions from a star catalog. The star directions are determined from guide star centroids and a calibrated camera model. Due to the strict accuracy requirements a new elaborated centroid algorithm has been developed and implemented on a MDPA/LEON2-FT platform.This paper describes the PLATO Fine Guidance System algorithm, implementation, and verification procedure.
| Paper submission | Yes |
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