Power Conversion and Distribution Units (PCDU) place high demands on their reliability and robustness. Thanks to their development experience, our engineers contribute to mature designs of PCDUs and their functional elements.

High-performance computers and mass storage often require voltages below 3.3 V as well as currents of 20 A and more. Combining the two is physically difficult to solve when outstanding efficiency is required. ASP engineers found a solution to this challenge and contributed significantly to the success of well-known missions.

ASP was selected by ESA to contribute to the PLATO mission with the Ancillary Electronic Unit (AEU). The PLATO (PLanetary Transits and Oscillations of Stars) mission aims to find and characterize a large number of extrasolar planetary systems, focusing on the properties of extraterrestrial planets in the habitable zone around bright Sun-like stars. PLATO also aims to study seismic activity in stars, which will allow accurate characterization of the planets’ host star, including its age. PLATO will determine planetary features such as radius, stellar irradiance, planetary system architecture, and evolutionary age with unprecedented accuracy.

To achieve its science goals, PLATO relies on high-precision cameras that produce a large number of precise stellar light curves taken at high duty cycle time intervals ranging from months to several years. The 24 cameras are arranged in 4 groups of 6 cameras each. Each group has the same field of view but is offset 9.2 degrees from the payload module axis, increasing the observed field of view to ~ 2250 degrees. Two fast cameras are also used as Fine Guidance Sensors (FGS) for the AOCS in science observing mode (higher performance, i.e., much better accuracy than standard star trackers) to meet the stringent alignment stability requirements.

The Instrument Power Unit (IPU) plays a central role in achieving the high performance of the Hyperspectral Imager of the German Earth Observation Mission EnMAP. In terms of accuracy and stability of the IPU, ASP is reaching the limits of what is physically feasible to support the mission objectives.

The IPU features two ultra-precise calibration current sources distributed across eight outputs, multiple switched outputs, galvanically isolated switchable outputs up to 10A, latching current limiter functionality, 16 heater supplies, and a UART-based RS-422 interface supported by a space-qualified RTAX2000 FPGA.

The IPU itself provides thermal control of the EnMAP instrument when the on-board computer boots or is inoperable due to other circumstances.

The German Environmental Mapping and Analysis Program (EnMAP) is a German hyperspectral satellite mission whose goal is to monitor and characterize the environment on a global scale. EnMAP is used to measure and model important dynamic processes in the Earth’s ecosystems by obtaining geochemical, biochemical, and biophysical parameters. These provide the information on the state and evolution of various terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems.

Unique is the mission design of a hyper-spectral range from 420 nm to 1000 nm (VNIR) and from 900 nm to 2450 nm (SWIR) with high radiometric resolution and stability in both spectral ranges.