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PLATO Week 10 final details

PLATO Week 10 will now be held remotely from the 26th to 28th of May 2020.

PW10 is being organised by the Konkoly Observatory of the Research Centre for Astronomy and Earth Sciences and the PMC.
Owing to ongoing COVID-19 restrictions, the decision has been made to move the meeting online; the conference will be conducted using WebEx (access provided by ESA).

The schedule for the meeting has been updated following this change. Please go to the PLATO Week 10 website for more details. A detailed agenda for the meeting will be available nearer the time.

Mon 27 Apr 2020, 09:00 | Tags: Budapest, ESA, Meeting, PDC, PLATO, PLATO week, PMC, PSM, news, online, virtual meeting

PMC-Internal L2/L3 RR successfully concludes

The first major review of PSM activity, the L2/L3 Requirements Review, was closed-out on the 9th of March 2020.

This internal review, which was run completely by the PLATO Mission Consortium, assessed the requirements for the L2 & L3 data processing pipelines, the systems that take PLATO light curves and identify planetary candidates, confirm planetary systems, and derive stellar properties.

Although a large number of action items remain to be completed, this review is considered a success by all involved. Thank you to everyone who took part, in any capacity.

Tue 10 Mar 2020, 09:00 | Tags: ESA, Exoplanets, L2/3 RR, PDC, PLATO, PMC, PSM, Review, SCIP, Success, data processing, news, requirements

PLATO Week 10 announcement

PLATO Week 10 will be taking place from the 26th to the 28th May 2020, and will be held in Budapest, Hungary.

As usual, the meeting will be preceded by an ESA progress meeting (invitation only).

More details are available on the PW10 website.

Tue 25 Feb 2020, 12:00 | Tags: Budapest, ESA, PLATO, PLATO week, PMC, news

PMC-Internal L2/L3 RR kicks-off

The first major review of PSM activity, the L2/L3 Requirements Review, successfully kicked-off on Friday 29th November. This internal review, which is run completely by the PLATO Mission Consortium and has only limited input from ESA, is assessing the requirements for the L2 & L3 data processing pipelines, the systems that take PLATO light curves and identify planetary candidates, confirm planetary systems, and derive stellar properties.

The initial phase of the review concludes on the 20th of December, and the review runs until the end of February 2020.

Mon 09 Dec 2019, 16:32 | Tags: ESA, Exoplanets, L2/3 RR, PDC, PLATO, PMC, PSM, Review, SCIP, data processing, kick-off, news, requirements

PLATO Week 9 announcement

PLATO Week 9 will be taking place from the 9th to the 11th October 2019, and will be held in Marseille, France.

As usual, the meeting will be preceded by an ESA progress meeting (invitation only).

More details are available on the PW9 website.

Mon 01 Jul 2019, 13:00 | Tags: ESA, Marseille, Meeting, PDC, PLATO, PLATO week, PMC, PSM, news

Delivery of first detectors for PLATO

The first batch of charge-coupled devices (CCDs) to be flown on ESA’s PLATO space observatory was accepted by ESA last month. This is an important milestone on the road to creating a groundbreaking spacecraft that will detect Earth-sized exoplanets in orbit around distant stars.

The CCDs will be a key element of the largest digital combined camera ever flown in space. This camera will receive light from 26 telescopes, all mounted on a single satellite platform. The first 20 CCDs for PLATO were accepted for delivery by ESA in mid-March, and the remaining 84 detectors will be delivered in further batches before the end of 2020.

“The delivery of the first detectors at this time is important because it secures the early availability of one of the key elements of the whole mission,” said Bengt Johlander, the PLATO Payload Manager for ESA.

For more details, see ESA's press release: http://sci.esa.int/plato/61280-delivery-of-first-detectors-for-platos-exoplanet-mission

Wed 24 Apr 2019, 10:07 | Tags: CCD, ESA, Newsletter, PLATO, PMC, Payload, instrument, news, spacecraft

Successful conclusion of Payload PDR

On March 27th a successful close-out meeting for the Payload Preliminary Design Review (P/L-PDR) was held at ESTEC, with ESA certifying that PLATO has achieved all the criteria necessary to pass the review.

The PMC leadership would like to thank the whole team for the enormous effort they made. It was only possible to reach this important milestone thanks to the consistently high motivation and desire to succeed that is present at all levels of the consortium.

In 2021 we will have the Payload Critical Design Review (P/L-CDR) and with the Camera Series Production Readiness milestone to deal with. Before that, however, we must complete the ongoing Unit PDRs.

Mon 08 Apr 2019, 09:02 | Tags: ESA, Newsletter, PDR, PLATO, PMC, PSM, PSM Office, Review, Success, news, spacecraft

Prime contractor selection announced

OHB System AG, a subsidiary of Bremen-based space and technology group OHB SE has been selected as prime contractor for the science mission PLAnetary Transits and Oscillations of Stars (PLATO) by the European Space Agency (ESA).

During the development and the production of the PLATO satellite, OHB System will have access to the contribution of a core team consisting of Thales Alenia Space (France and UK) and RUAG Space (Switzerland)(source: OHB System AG).

The prime selection together with the upcoming Instrument Preliminary Design Review (IPDR) are important milestones towards the completion of the development phase and the start of the implementation phase next year.

Fri 04 May 2018, 09:54 | Tags: ESA, Newsletter, OHB, PLATO, Payload, instrument, news, prime, spacecraft

PLATO adopted by ESA

ESA's Science Programme Committee have agreed to adopt PLATO into the Science Programme moving forwards. Mission adoption is a big milestone for PLATO, and marks the move from a blueprint mission into a fully-realised concern.

This decision is just reward for all of the hard work put in by the PLATO team over the last several years.

Tue 20 Jun 2017, 16:39 | Tags: Complementary Science, ESA, Exoplanets, PDC, PIC, PLATO, PSM, Payload, Report, adoption, news