Thales Alenia Space win ESA contract for PLATO phase B1 study
Thales Alenia Space
| 2015/01/13 | 188 words
| AVIATION WORLD NEWS | SPACE
Thales Alenia Space announced today that it has been selected by the European Space Agency for one of the three phase B1 studies of the PLATO (PLAnetary Transits and Oscillation of stars) program, part of ESA's Cosmic Vision 2015-25.
Phase B1 entails the consolidation of all mission, system and subsystem requirements, including definition of the satellite configuration and operational aspects, comparative analyses and assessment of scientific performance.
The main purpose of the PLATO mission, scheduled for launch in 2024, is to study planetary systems outside the solar system by identifying and analyzing planetary transits.
Thales Alenia Space Italia will conduct this phase of the project by defining the system and subsystem aspects of the satellite, with Thales Alenia Space France providing the payload definition.
PLATO will also study stars to determine their age, mass and dimensions. By observing stars relatively close to Earth, it will evaluate the slight but regular changes in brightness that indicate the presence of planets. PLATO will provide key information to determine these planets' mass, radius, density, bulk composition and distance from their “sun,” in the ongoing search for worlds potentially similar to our own.
From October 3rd to 5th, the IFTM-Top Résa Trade Show, which will be held at the Parc des Expositions de la Porte de Versailles, will offer an opportunity to ex...
Gulfstream Aerospace has announced that it will build a new aircraft service center at the Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport, its first facility in Arizona. The new 225,000...
Boeing has decided to establish two 737-800BCF conversion lines in Latin America to meet the growing customer demand for narrowbody freighters. The new conversion cen...
Aviation and aerospace newsletter
Receive all the aeronautical news directly in your inbox
For the first time in over a decade, the European Space Agency (ESA) is seeking new astronauts to join humankind’s greatest adventure for the benefit of Earth.Ap...
Exploring the link between solar wind and magnetosphere Thales Alenia Space has recently been awarded one of three competitive studies funded by the European Spac...
Thales Alenia Space announced today that it has been selected by French space agency CNES (Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales) to build the oceanography satellite SWOT...