The integration and verification of the power and mechanism control unit of the VIS instrument for the Euclid space mission

The ESA space mission Euclid is designed to map the geometry of the dark Universe and will be equipped with two instruments on-board. The VIS instrument [1] is composed of different subsystems including the Power and Mechanism Control Unit (PMCU). The PMCU is developed and manufactured in France under responsibility of the CEA (Commissariat à l'Énergie Atomique et aux Énergies Alternatives) with the support of CNES (Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales) . It controls VIS subsystems located in the cold PayLoad Module (PLM) which are the readout shutter, the calibration unit and the Focal Plane Array (FPA) thermistors. We will describe the integration of the PMCU, the philosophy of its tests and results obtained to qualify the unit up to the Flight Model in preparation to its delivery foreseen in Autumn 2018.

[1]  R. Laureijs,et al.  The Euclid VIS CCD detector design, development, and programme status , 2014, Astronomical Telescopes and Instrumentation.

[2]  N. Murray,et al.  VIS: the visible imager for Euclid , 2012, Other Conferences.

[3]  Roberto Scaramella,et al.  The data handling unit of the Euclid imaging channels: from the observational requirements to the unit architecture , 2010, Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation.