The PLATO Dome A site-testing observatory: Power generation and control systems

Abstract

The atmospheric conditions above Dome A, a currently unmanned location at the highest point on the Antarctic plateau, are uniquely suited to astronomy. For certain types of astronomy Dome A is likely to be the best location on the planet, and this has motivated the development of the Plateau Observatory (PLATO). PLATO was deployed to Dome A in early 2008. It houses a suite of purpose-built site-testing instruments designed to quantify the benefits of Dome A site for astronomy, and science instruments designed to take advantage of the observing conditions. The PLATO power generation and control system is designed to provide continuous power and heat, and a high-reliability command and communications platform for these instruments. PLATO has run and collected data throughout the winter 2008 season completely unattended. Here we present a detailed description of the power generation, power control, thermal management, instrument interface, and communications systems for PLATO, and an overview of the system performance for 2008.

Variable Stars Observed in the Galactic Disk by AST3-1 from Dome A, Antarctica

“…Meanwhile, other factors for observations are also taken into account, including the altitude and phase of the Moon, the angular distance between the telescope pointing and the Moon, and the altitude of the Sun . To operate the AST3 at remote Dome A, an improved version of PLATO (an automated observatory platform for CSTAR and other earlier instruments 14 ), PLATO-A was designed to offer about 1 kW power source for AST3 (Lawrence et al 2009;Ashley et al 2010;Shang et al 2012).…”

The AST3-NIR camera for the Kunlun Infrared Sky Survey

“…The KISS facility must therefore be designed for fully remote operation. As with the existing AST3 telescopes at Dome A, power, heat, and communications to the KISS facility will be provided by the PLATO (PLATeau Observatory) infrastructure that has operated reliably for over a decade in Antarctica [7,8]. The PLATO system uses diesel engines and photovoltaic panels to provide electrical power and heat (to a level up to ~1 kW continuous), and uses the Iridium satellite network for communications (at a 128 kbps bandwidth).…”

“…The telescope tube is enclosed and the corrector window has an indium-tin-oxide coating to avoid frost formation. The telescope and instrument include a control system that interfaces to a remote PLATO system [7,8] for power generation, communications and control. *jl@aao.gov.au; phone +61 2 9372-4853…”

Dome A site testing and future plans

“…Since as yet there is no winterover capability at Dome A, our collaborators at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) designed and built a facility called PLATO ("PLATeau Observatory", Lawrence et al 2009, Hengst et al 2008) to provide power, heat, computer control and satellite communication for our experiments. PLATO and its first generation of instruments were installed by the second expedition to Dome A-the 24th Chinese Antarctic expedition team, which included two astronomers from the Chinese Center for Antarctic Astronomy: Xu Zhou and Zhengxi Zhu.…”