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PLATO adopted as ESA M-Class mission
21 June 2017
UCLSat, a satellite designed and built by UCL engineers and scientists, has been launched today from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in India as part of an international mission called QB50.
We are excited to announce that the PLATO exoplanet mission has been
formally adopted by the European Space Agency as their 3rd Medium Class mission at a meeting of its Science Planning Committee on the 19th June听2017. The PLATO mission is due for launch in 2026 and will operate for a听minimum of four years during which it will observer planetary transits听and stellar oscillations. By this means it will characterised a very听large number of planetary systems and, together with ground-based听follow-up observations, will determine the radius of the planets and the听mass and age of the central star. The spacecraft will comprise 24听'Normal' cameras and two 'Fast' cameras with the sensors being supplied听from the UK by Teledyne in Chemlsford. MSSL has the responsibility for听the development and production of the front-end electronics for the听'Normal' cameras and the final characterization of the optical sensors.听The project is funded within the UK by the UK Space Agency.
'PLATO will make a giant leap in our understanding of planetary systems,听particularly systems similar to our own that may contain habitable听planets' - Professor Alan Smith, Director MSSL and member of PLATO Council.