Performance of the autonomous PLATO Antarctic Observatory over two full years

Abstract

For continuous observation at locations that are inhospitable for humans, the desirability of autonomous observatories is self evident. PLATO, the 'PLATeau Observatory' was designed to host an easily configurable instrument suite in the extremely cold conditions on the Antarctic plateau, and can provide up to 1 kW of power for the instruments. Powered by jet fuel and the Sun, PLATO and its instruments have been taking nearly uninterrupted astronomical science and sitetesting data at Dome A, the coldest, highest and driest location 1 on the Antarctic Plateau, since their deployment by the 24th Chinese expedition team in January 2008. At the time of writing, PLATO has delivered a total uptime of 730 days. Following a servicing mission by the 25th Chinese expedition team in 2008-9, PLATO has achieved 100% up-time (520 days) and has been in continuous contact with the rest of the world via its Iridium satellite modems. This paper discusses the performance of the observatory itself, assesses the sources of energy and dissects how the energy is divided between the core observatory functions of instrument power, heating, control and communication.

Photometry of Variable Stars From Dome A, Antarctica

“…We have built such an observatory at Dome A, called PLATO (PLATeau Observatory; Ashley et al 2010;Luong-van et al 2010;Yang et al 2009;Lawrence et al 2009;Lawrence et al 2008;Hengst et al 2008;Lawrence et al 2006), and a quad-telescope called CSTAR (the Chinese Small Telescope ARray; Yuan et al 2008;Zhou et al 2010b). Based on a large amount of high-quality photometric data obtained during the 2008 Antarctic winter, Zou et al (2010) undertook a variety of sky brightness, transparency, and photometric monitoring observations, while Zhou et al (2010a) published a catalog of ∼10,000 stars in a field centered on the south celestial pole.…”

PLATO-R: a new concept for Antarctic science

“…The first PLATO [5][6][7][8][9] became operational at Dome A in 2008 January, and ran continuously for 204 days during that year. [10][11][12] Following a servicing mission in 2008/2009 conducted by the Polar Research Institute of China, PLATO operated without interruption for 1235 days, with no human on site apart from a few weeks during each of the yearly servicing missions. PLATO stopped on 2012 May 31, following many months of operation with much lower than usual temperatures in the Engine Module.…”