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FPA-CEB – Focal Plane Assembly (FPA) and Control Electronic Box (CEB) for the Coronograph onboard ASPIICS to be flown on Proba-3. [Proba-3]

Proba-3 will fly ASPIICS (Association of Spacecraft for Polarimetric and Imaging Investigation of the Corona of the Sun), a Coronagraph, which uses formation flying techniques to compose a giant telescope, capable of producing a nearly perfect eclipse allowing to observe the Sun’s corona closer to the rim than ever before.

Creating an artificial Solar eclipse

The Coronagraph is distributed over 2 satellites, each of them flying 150 m apart. The so-called “Coronagraph” satellite and the so called “Occulter” satellite. The latter carries the Sun’s occulter disc.

OIP, as a subcontractor for the Centre Spatial de Liège [B], was responsible for the design and the development of the ASPIICS’ Coronagraph FPA and CEB subunits.

FPA – Focal Plane Assembly

The FPA is located at the back of the telescope’s optics and is housing the front-end electronics of the Coronagraph camera. It consists of an APS image sensor, the proximity electronics of the APS, a harness from the FPA to the Camera Electronics Box (CEB), the FPA mechanical parts and a radiator with thermal strap.

CEB – Camera Electronics Box

The CEB is dedicated to control the FPA and contains all related steering electronics. It interfaces with the spacecraft’s Coronagraph Control Box (CCB).

Mission

Proba-3 is an ESA mission devoted to the in-orbit demonstration (IOD) of precise formation flying techniques and technologies for future ESA missions.

Proba-3 includes a primary payload that exploits the features of the demonstration. In this case it is a sun coronagraph, ASPIICS, a giant 150 m coronagraph capable of producing a nearly perfect eclipse allowing to observe the sun corona closer to the rim than ever before or in any planned mission. The Coronagraph is distributed over the two satellites flying in formation (~150m apart).

Proba-3 will be a laboratory in space to validate strategies, guidance, navigation and control and other algorithms previously tried in ground simulators. These techniques and simulators developed in the frame of Proba-3 will then be available more widely, becoming instrumental in the preparation of future missions.

Proba-3 marks the next step in formation flying. Its two satellites will maintain formation to millimetre and arc second precision at distances of 150m or more. In effect the pair will be flying as a virtual giant satellite. And this will be achieved autonomously, without relying on guidance from the ground. Two small satellites will be launched together  into a highly elliptical orbit and will then separate. After a short preparatory period the two satellites will be separated and injected into a safe relative tandem orbit. The commissioning period will include demonstration of the mission’s Collision Avoidance Manoeuvre, ensuring they can be left safely in an orbit with no chance of collision or running away from each other. Normal operations will then include both formation flying manoeuvres and coronagraph observations.

OIP’s Participation

OIP, as subcontractor to CSL, is responsible for the design and development of the ASPIICS Focal Plane Assembly (FPA) & Camera Electronic Box (CEB) during phase C/D.

Status

The project is far advanced in the phase D, meaning that the flight units are being finalized and delivered.

OIP delivered the FM FPA subunit to CSL in december 2020. The CEB PFM is targetted for spring 2021.

In the past OIP completed several models for FPA (STM, DM and QM) subunit and CEB (STM, EM and DM) subunits.

Partners

OIP is a subcontractor to Centre Spatial de Liège (CSL, B) and works together with AE-Electronics (AEE, RO) for development of the electronic boards.

The project is funded by BELSPO through ESA.

ASPIICS is built by a European consortium led by CSL, including more than twenty partners from seven countries (Belgium, Poland, Romania, Italy, Ireland, Greece, and The Czech Republic) under the auspices of the ESA’s General Support Technology Programme (GSTP) and the Czech Prodex Programme. The expected launch date is in 2021.
Dr Andrei Zhukov of the Royal Observatory of Belgium is appointed as Principal Investigator for the ASPIICS instrument.

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