INTA as test house for PLATO: telescope flight model TVAC testing and calibration first results

Kurzfassung

The preparation of the different institutes (IAS, SRON and INTA at France, Netherlands and Spain, respectively) for being ready for testing the PLATO (Planetary transits and oscillation of starts) telescopes (PLATO CAMs) under working condition has been a long trip full of requirements updates and needs adaptation. For this ESA mission devoted to the Exoplanets detection and partial characterization together to the associated star activity evaluation through its astroseismology, 26 telescopes are going to be mounted on the same platform. There are 24 identical ‘normal’ and 2 ‘fast’ PLATO CAMs, all formed by four CCDs mounted on the focal plane assembly (FPA), the front end electronics (FEE) used for completing the detection chain, and optics and optomechanics that forms the telescopes optical unit (TOU). After their alignment and integration verification done at CSL, they are sent to the corresponding institute for running at the best focus temperature at which the telescope provides the best image the performance checks required for considering them properly characterized and ready to be installed in their final configuration at OHB. In this paper, a brief summary on the main details of the tests carried out at INTA on the PLATO CAM flight model (FM) number three are reported on. In addition, preliminary results obtained together to the rest of the consortium and related to the telescopes capabilities are included for the particular case of such first flight model tested at INTA.