ARIEL Telescope Assembly Design Description

Date Issued
2022
Author(s)
Abstract
This document concerns the detailed design description of the Ariel Telescope Assembly (TA) and its baseline functional architecture adopted for the Unit Preliminary Design Review (TA-PDR), Phase B2), as derived from the latest system-level requirements specifications and the Ariel Payload Design Description. ESA adopted the Ariel mission in November 2020 as the M4 mission in the ESA 2015-2025 Cosmic Vision Program. Ariel will address the fundamental questions on what exoplanets are made of and how planetary systems form and evolve investigating the atmospheres of hundreds of diverse planets orbiting different types of stars. Ariel will observe a large number (~1000) of warm and hot transiting gas giants, Neptunes and super-Earths around a range of host star types using transit spectroscopy in the ~1.1–7.8 μm spectral range and broad-band photometry in the optical and Near-IR. Generally, planets hotter than 600 K will be targeted to take advantage of their well-mixed atmospheres. The Ariel payload consists of Cold Payload Units (PLM, see Figure 1) based on a Telescope Assembly feeding a collimated beam through a Common Optics system into two separate instrument modules: the FGS, a combined Fine Guidance System/VIS-Photometer/NIR-Spectrometer and AIRS, a 2-channel low resolution IR spectrometer. The PLM is passively cooled to ~55 K and thermally shielded from the Warm Payload Units (SVM) by V-Groove radiators. The SVM includes the ICU, TCU and FCU electronics.
Volume
ARIEL-INAF-PL-DD-001 issue 1.0
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iSE-1_ARIEL-INAF-PL-DD-001_TA Design Description_Issue_1.0_def.pdf

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[Administrators only]
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7.3 MB

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