Team Meeting

23 mars 2026, 14:00 → 24 mars 2026, 16:00 UTC

Attendants: Amira, Jehanne, Elias, Mathias, Luis, Senol, Elsa, Samuel, Sylvestre, Tristan, Zexuan

Agenda:

 

Monday 23:

 

14h -> 14h30 : Welcome

14h30 -> 14h45 : Sciences goals (Sylvestre)

14h45 -> 15h00  : Instrument architecture (Sylvestre)

 

15h00 -> 16h00 : WP0 Management (Tristan)

 

16h00 -> 16h20 : WP1 Metrology : Concept Description (Sylvestre)
16h20 -> 16h40 : WP1 Metrology : Presentation Error Budget (Mathias)
16h40 -> 17h00 : WP1 Metrology : Test Setup and Plan for Paranal TTR (Amira)

17h30 -> 17h30 : WP1 Metrology : Q&A (Luis)

 

17h30 -> 18h00 : WP4 FeedingOptics : Status (Luis)

 

Tuesday 24:

 

9h00 -> 9h20: WP2 : Interferometric bench status (Jehanne)

9h20 -> 9h30: WP2: Beam Combination Principle (Sylvestre)

9h30 -> 10h00: WP2: Teem Photonics (Antoine/Cedric)

 

10h00 -> 10h20:  WP3: Detector & Camera CCTP (Tristan)

10h20 -> 10h40: WP3: FLI camera (Lucie ?)

10h40 -> 11h00: WP3: Spectrometer optical design (Manon)

 

11h00 -> 12h00 : WP1-2: Interferometric and Metrology bench: Visit

 

13h00 -> 13h30: WP5 & WP6: ICS and System Status (Tristan)

13h30 -> 13h45: WP7: Pipeline (Jehanne and Zexuan)

13h15 -> 14h00:  good bye

 

 

Presentations.

 

Sylvestre for science and Top Level Requirements:

• Document on the ESO one-drive (TRL Planetes --> Right name to come)
• From this scientific document --> Technical requirements to come. 
• Planetes is an... instrument / Tech-Dev / Other / Be careful how we communicate on the projet --> Identical to SAXO+
• Status of Metrology --> Tech-Dev
• Possible to become a visitor instrument if demonstrate enhancement in the performances
• PIONER de-commissioning under discussion. Not required for PLANETES
• Description of the scientific objectives
• Top Technical Requirements Specifications document to write... by Sylvestre/Mathias/Tristan

Instrument architecture and management (Tristan):

• Need a document describing the instrument as an overview and all the justification of the design (to put inside the TRS document ? TBD)
• Need a description of the development plan of the metrology system

• Need to change the PBS: no delivery by ESO and IPAG, by LIRA. But keep them in the WBS
• Need to exchange with ESO on the ESO FTE
• JIRA web site @LIRA to track actions/incoming/NC... make external access to ESO

Metrology (Mathias, Amira and Sylvestre):

• Presentation and discussion around the concept
• Need development plan (very simple) showing the different steps for the system implementation at VLT from the first prototype to the final sub-system. To be write in the global timeline of the PMP
• Power budget on a single telescope with a single channel (one photodiode). Polarisation issue on the reflection of light at the telescope --> Probably need a polarisation control, inject the same polarisation on the 4 UT. Enough flux on the bench --> To be checked at the telescope. Factor 10 between the expected vibration and the signal modulation. Laser frequency stability, drift will be corrected.
• Test bench update. Some spurious frequencies visible --> Need to insulate the bench (mechanical vibration, electronics EMC, ...). Injection inside PIONER.
• Need to test the Piezo-Mike first. Tip-tilt or X-Y stages needed TBD. Need a specific TT mount to be adapted to the VLT spider geometry. Use of FSM ? Use the X-Y stage of the PIONER fibre ? 
• Luis shows a list of actions and knowledge on the VLT.

 

Feeding Optics (Luis)

• Gravity feeding optics: Dichroic + mount on a large translation stage to feed both Gravity and Planetes in two different bandwidth, pupil shift.
• PIONER feeding optics: Dichroic mounts on periscope (motorisation at that location = TBC). 
• Questions: possible to work with Gravity or PIONER when Metrology test on-going

 

Interferometric bench (Jehanne)

• Description of the injection in the delay lines and the polarisation control.
• Automatic Control, stability control, test of the integrated optic component. 
• Light source too faint in some calibration. 
• VLC chip with 20% transmission on the bench (far away from the requirements)

 

Integrated optics (presentation by Amira, Sylvestre and teemphotonics):

• Metrology is sent from the input: less loose in transmission.
• Need to develop tools for the wavelength in 2026, to fix all the details --> One year after the finalisation of the device.
• New measurements of transmission around 70%@1083nm, around 50%@1310nm (laser). The component is not optimised for the desired wavelength. Requirements to have the same transmission on all the outputs (few % of dispersion).
• Work under progress to the balance.
• Development step be step: blocks, tests, chips, tests and optimisation
• Current component without fibres (the final will have fibre on the input and output)

 

Camera and Detector:

• See presentation
• Alignement camera will be used first --> Need to write the AIT plan

 

Optical Design (Manon):

• See presentation
• 82µm space for the image plane
• How to block the laser ? --> Simple filter in the spectrometer optical path

 

AIT:

• Procedures and facilities to reduce as much as possible the risk of contamination 
• Need a basic AIT Plan: where / what to do / facilities-GSE

 

ICS:

• Interface with Gravity --> Need for long integration time by using the fringes traker. PLANETS alone: alignement, short time observation (10Hz)
• PLC may not be needed (TBC)
• No rooms available inside the PIONER room: need to have a cabinet for PLANETES (TBC).
• Need to have a clear external IF of PLANETES

 

Pipeline:

• See presentation
• Copy of the architecture of the Gravity pipeline, but written in Python

 

Conclusion:

• Create a new directory on the onedrive to put the presentation of this meeting
• Distribution of the minutes to the attendants for any corrections and remarks, put document on the onedrive
• Need to be clear on the dependencies of PLANETES --> Other instruments, facilities, etc...
• Timeline seems to be critical --> Less than 30 months to go to the telescope !

 

Actions.

• Sylvestre/Tristan/Mathias: Technical top level requirements document to be written (may be inspired by the Gravity document). Take numbers that are everywhere in the current documentation, notes, computers HDD ! Date: 01/06/2026

• Mathias: Write the dev plan of the metrology system (how many steps, hardware needed, VLT requirements/operations...). Date: 15/05/26
• Tristan: Put the exel sheet (Luis one) for the Metrology in the form of JIRA tickets
• Tristan : Start a first draft of the AIT plan