THE PLANCK SATELLITE

The PLANCK satellite of 4.2 meters high and 4.2 meters maximum diameter, will have a launch mass of about 2 tons. The satellite is composed of a payload module and a service module.

The PLANCK payload is composed of:

a 1.75 x 1.5 m gregorian telescope, equiped of a primary and a secondary mirror which collect the microwave radiations and direct them to the focal plane of the instruments, and a protection baffle.
the cryogenic focal planes of the two instruments HFI and LFI,
the cooling systems.

The service module hosts:

the power generation and condioning systems,
the attitude control,
the data management and the communications,
the warm parts of the scientific instruments (HFI and LFI).

The PLANCK satellite will be developped in en parallel with the HERSCHEL satellite by a common project team. PLANCK and HERSCHEL will be put in orbit by an ARIANE 5 launcher in 2009. The transfer time to the Lagrange L2 point will approximately last 4 months. The satellite should function during a minimum of 21 months.