Space instrumentation tecnologies

The Atmospheric Remote-sensing Infrared Exoplanets Large-survey (Ariel) is a space project selected by the European Space Agency as the next M4 mission within the Cosmic Vision 2015-2025 programme. Ariel’s instrumental layout is based on a 1-m class telescope feeding two spectrometer channels that cover the band 1.95 to 7.8 µm and four photometric channels in the visible to the near-IR range. The high sensitivity requirements of the mission need a highly stable thermo-mechanical platform. The thermal stability of the telescope and detector units is one of the main drivers of the design. The periodical perturbations due to orbital changes, active cooling, or other internal instabilities make temperature control one of the most critical issues of the whole architecture. Our aim is to design and simulate the thermal design of the Ariel mission payload, together with the analysis of the main trade-offs needed to enable the Ariel exciting science in a technically feasible design.

Temperature maps of the thermal model for the Ariel Payload Module (PLM) in the two cases of greatest thermal stress (on the left when not receiving sunlight, on the right during launch into orbit).

Team

	Vincenzo Davide Cardinale PhD Student Email: vincenzo.cardinale @inaf.it ORCID:		Fabio D’Anca Technologist Email: fabio.danca @inaf.it ORCID: 0000-0001-78345760
	Elisa Guerriero Researcher Email: elisa.guerriero @inaf.it ORCID: 0000-0002-6586-0621		Giusi Micela Head of ExoPa Email: giusi.micela @inaf.it ORCID: 0000-0002-9900-4751