Positioning mechanism for GAIA
The future GAIA mission, scheduled for December 2011, is an ESA project to produce the largest known map of our galaxy. With three telescopes and their corresponding instruments, GAIA will observe and catalogue a million stars, 1% of those that make up the Milky Way. For five years, it will record the distance to these stars, their movements and changes in brightness with sufficient accuracy to quantify the early formation and the evolution of the dynamic and chemical formation of our galaxy. Gaia is also expected to discover hundreds of thousands of new celestial objects and to provide new proof for relativity and cosmology in general.
SENER is responsible for the M2MM: the positioning mechanism for the secondary mechanisms of the telescopes, which joins the reflecting mirror to GAIA’s optical array. The M2MM provides sub-micron accuracy with five levels of freedom, correcting any maladjustments of the telescope after its launch. It is designed to operate in a temperature range of 110 ºK, with great thermal stability and able to withstand launch forces without hold-down. As part of the same project, SENER is also responsible for the deployable parasol.
