Image: European Space Agency
Six-month review involving over 100 people gives go-ahead for next phase of Plato mission
A European mission to search for and study planets outside our solar system has won approval to move on to the next stage of preparation.
The next stage of the Plato mission, first proposed in 2007, will involve further work by industry on a planned spacecraft and its instruments.
The mission is intended to launch at the end of 2026, and use 26 specialist cameras to find and study planets orbiting stars similar to our own Sun.
Between July and December last year it underwent an extensive review involving more than 100 people from the European Space Agency, which it has now passed.
Esa is responsible for developing the Plato craft and its instruments, together with an industry consortium. On 14 January it said that, with the mission having passed the review, a second phase of industrial development can start.
“The mission will serve the science community to gather invaluable knowledge of planets in our galaxy, beyond our own solar system,” explained Esa’s Plato project manager Filippo Marliani.
“The successful completion of the critical milestone and the formal start of the second phase of this extraordinary mission constitute an important boost of positive energy for the next challenges to be tackled with our industrial, institutional and academic partners.”
Complicated components risk delays
The review checked the design of the carrier craft, its instruments and how they will work together, as well as the schedules for their development.
Don Pollacco from the University of Warwick, which leads the Plato Science Management Consortium, said the mission “involves the serial production of complicated components and is challenging to both academia and industry”.
Esa identified the development of the cameras for the mission carriers as being a particular risk, for example.
Pollaco added: “Any production errors will lead to greater costs and delays, so passing this milestone is reaffirming confidence in the hundreds of scientists and engineers that are working on this mission.”
The mission has already been delayed at least once: when it was first approved in 2014, Plato was expected to have 34 cameras and to launch in 2024.
Since Plato was proposed in 2007, other milestones have included a 2008 invitation to industry to tender for the mission, an assessment of the mission scope in 2013 followed by a green light in 2014, approval of the construction phase in 2017 and the start of full industry development in 2018.
The next milestone is a design review in 2023. If the mission passes that review, assembly of the complete spacecraft will be able to start.