The Brno-based company has handed over the construction for the PLATO mission.

The Brno-based company has handed over the construction for the PLATO mission.
11/11/2022Press releases

On Friday, transport minister Martin Kupka attended the presentation of the completed chassis of the satellite for the PLATO space science mission. It was made by the Brno-based company S.A.B. Aerospace s.r.o. and will hand over the equipment to the European Space Agency (ESA) main contractor, OHB System AG, in the coming weeks. The chassis will be fitted with other systems and the complete chassis will be delivered to ESA. At the moment it is the most advanced and costly space project of its kind in our country.

The Brno-based company has handed over the construction for the PLATO mission.
"The PLATO chassis is a fundamental shift in the value chain of the Czech space industry – exactly what the government has set as a goal for the period 2020 to 2025 in the National Space Plan. We need to start selling significantly more complex systems than the ones we have established in the space industry during the first ten years since the Czech Republic joined the ESA," says transport minister Martin Kupka, adding: "We are seeing an example of where it's not just about first-class technical solutions but also about comprehensive management of component suppliers from across Europe."
PLATO's mission (PLAnetary Transits and Oscillations of Stars) is designed to search for exoplanets (planets of stars other than the Sun), focusing on Earth-like exoplanets in the habitable zone around Sun-like stars. PLATO will be placed at the L2 liberation point of the Sun-Earth system 1 500 000 million kilometres from Earth, facing away from the Sun where conditions are ideal for observations (it is not an Earth satellite, so it will not orbit the Earth).
 
It carries 26 telescopes (cameras) that will work simultaneously. It consists of a science module (PLM) with cameras and a service module (SVM). The chassis for SVM is manufactured in Brno and is the basic structure (similar to the chassis of a car): the frame to which all other systems are attached (e.g. energy systems such as solar panels, telecommunication systems such as the antenna, steering systems such as the on-board computer, correction motors and reaction wheels, etc.). It also has to withstand strong vibrations during take-off and keep everything together.
Years of operation in extreme conditions 
"In the Czech Republic we have experience with delivering large structures. Aerotech Czech s.r.o. from Klatovy supplies parts of Europe's largest Ariane rocket and S.A.B. from Brno. Aerospace s.r.o. produces the SSMS launcher that can place dozens of satellites into orbit," says Václav Kobera, Director of the Department of Intelligent Transport Systems, Space Activities and Research, Development and Innovation at the Ministry of Transport. "But this is a structure that not only has to withstand the launch with all the mechanical stresses but also years of mission operation in the extreme conditions of space – not just minutes or tens of minutes as with launch vehicles," he adds.
 
Ondřej Šváb, Head of the Space Activities Department of the Ministry of Transport, reminds us of what is unique here: "This is the most expensive flight hardware yet entrusted by ESA to a Czech company. Its complexity arises from the comprehensive management of contractors who have much more experience with similar projects. So even such collaborations bring us forward."
 
"S.A.B. Aerospace s.r.o. won the contract thanks to its previous successful projects in the field of launch vehicles and scientific equipment for the International Space Station ISS. This convinced ESA's main contractor to entrust us with responsibility for the design, manufacture, assembly and testing of this subsystem," explains Ondřej Rohlík, ESA's delegate responsible for the science programme and industrial policy.
 
Mission logo: https://www.cosmos.esa.int/documents/343127/343227/Plato_Logo.png/24bdb96f-f40a-4858-a75e-1f8ff5a988dc?t=1580295327697
 
The animation is available at https://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/plato (below)
 
Render: https://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Images/2022/05/Artist_s_impression_of_Plato
 
Factsheet: https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Plato_factsheet
(list ESA as the source for everything)
 
Diagram of the exoplanet detection method: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methods_of_detecting_exoplanets#/media/File:Planetary_transit.svg
(CC BY-SA 3.0)

(Introduction photo: ESA)




 



 
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