PROBA3-ASPIICS coronagraph - alignment, performance tests and calibration

Abstract

PROBA-3 is a mission devoted to the in-orbit demonstration (IOD) of precise formation flying (F²) techniques and technologies for future ESA missions. The mission includes two spacecrafts. One of them will act as an external occulter for scientific observations of the solar corona from the other spacecraft, which will hold the ASPIICS coronagraph instrument, under CSL (Centre Spatial de Liège) responsibility.The ASPIICS instrument on PROBA-3 looks at the solar corona through a refractive telescope, able to select 3 different spectral bands: Fe XIV