The instrument control unit of the ARIEL payload: design evolution following the unit and payload subsystems SRR (system requirements review)

ARIEL (Atmospheric Remote-sensing InfraRed Large-survey) is a medium-class mission of the European Space Agency, part of the Cosmic Vision program, whose launch is foreseen by early 2029. ARIEL aims to study the composition of exoplanet atmospheres, their formation and evolution. The ARIEL’s target will be a sample of about 1000 planets observed with one or more of the following methods: transit, eclipse and phase-curve spectroscopy, at both visible and infrared wavelengths simultaneously. The scientific payload is composed by a reflective telescope having a 1m-class elliptical primary mirror, built in solid Aluminium, and two focal-plane instruments: FGS and AIRS. FGS (Fine Guidance System)1 has the double purpose, as suggested by its name, of performing photometry (0.50-0.55 µm) and low resolution spectrometry over three bands (from 0.8 to 1.95 µm) and, simultaneously, to provide data to the spacecraft AOCS (Attitude and Orbit Control System) with a cadence of 10 Hz and contributing to reach a 0.02 arcsec pointing accuracy for bright targets. AIRS (ARIEL InfraRed Spectrometer) instrument will perform IR spectrometry in two wavelength ranges: between 1.95 and 3.9 µm (with a spectral resolution R > 100) and between 3.9 and 7.8 µm with a spectral resolution R > 30. This paper provides the status of the ICU (Instrument Control Unit), an electronic box whose purpose is to command and supply power to AIRS (as well as acquire science data from its two channels) and to command and control the TCU (Telescope Control Unit)

A chemical survey of exoplanets with ARIEL

Thousands of exoplanets have now been discovered with a huge range of masses, sizes and orbits: from rocky Earth-like planets to large gas giants grazing the surface of their host star. However, the essential nature of these exoplanets remains largely mysterious: there is no known, discernible pattern linking the presence, size, or orbital parameters of a planet to the nature of its parent star. We have little idea whether the chemistry of a planet is linked to its formation environment, or whether the type of host star drives the physics and chemistry of the planet’s birth, and evolution. ARIEL was conceived to observe a large number (~1000) of transiting planets for statistical understanding, including gas giants, Neptunes, super-Earths and Earth-size planets around a range of host star types using transit spectroscopy in the 1.25–7.8 μm spectral range and multiple narrow-band photometry in the optical. ARIEL will focus on warm and hot planets to take advantage of their well-mixed atmospheres which should show minimal condensation and sequestration of high-Z materials compared to their colder Solar System siblings. Said warm and hot atmospheres are expected to be more representative of the planetary bulk composition. Observations of these warm/hot exoplanets, and in particular of their elemental composition (especially C, O, N, S, Si), will allow the understanding of the early stages of planetary and atmospheric formation during the nebular phase and the following few million years. ARIEL will thus provide a representative picture of the chemical nature of the exoplanets and relate this directly to the type and chemical environment of the host star. ARIEL is designed as a dedicated survey mission for combined-light spectroscopy, capable of observing a large and well-defined planet sample within its 4-year mission lifetime. Transit, eclipse and phase-curve spectroscopy methods, whereby the signal from the star and planet are differentiated using knowledge of the planetary ephemerides, allow us to measure atmospheric signals from the planet at levels of 10–100 part per million (ppm) relative to the star and, given the bright nature of targets, also allows more sophisticated techniques, such as eclipse mapping, to give a deeper insight into the nature of the atmosphere. These types of observations require a stable payload and satellite platform with broad, instantaneous wavelength coverage to detect many molecular species, probe the thermal structure, identify clouds and monitor the stellar activity. The wavelength range proposed covers all the expected major atmospheric gases from e.g. H2O, CO2, CH4 NH3, HCN, H2S through to the more exotic metallic compounds, such as TiO, VO, and condensed species. Simulations of ARIEL performance in conducting exoplanet surveys have been performed – using conservative estimates of mission performance and a full model of all significant noise sources in the measurement – using a list of potential ARIEL targets that incorporates the latest available exoplanet statistics. The conclusion at the end of the Phase A study, is that ARIEL – in line with the stated mission objectives – will be able to observe about 1000 exoplanets depending on the details of the adopted survey strategy, thus confirming the feasibility of the main science objectives.Peer reviewedFinal Published versio

Transpressional tectonics and Carboniferous magmatism in the Limousin, Massif Central, France: Structural and ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar investigations

New structural, microstructural, and 40Ar/39 Ar data from the NW Massif Central (France) provide additional constraints on the timing and tectonic setting of late Variscan granite magmatism. Previous studies had emphasized the role of late orogenic extension in the emplacement of granite plutons in the Limousin region. In contrast, the new data set is consistent with syntectonic emplacement of magma in a dextral simple shear active from 350 to 300 Ma in a transpressional regime. As an alternative hypothesis to late orogenic extension, we propose that magmas migrated into tensional bridges between active P shears associated with a lithospheric shear zone comparable to a pop-up structure. The Galician region, in the western end of the Ibero-Armorican tectonic arc, exhibits major left-lateral ductile shear zones which can be interpreted as conjugate structures to the Limousin and Armorican shear zones. Copyright 2007 by the American Geophysical Union

ECSGS Management Plan

Version 0.9 reviewed by ESA at the Euclid SGS Preliminary Requirements Review (2013) Version 1.9 reviewed by ESA at the Euclid SGS System Requirements Review (2015)The ECSGS Management Plan is focused on the following topics: ECSGS organisation, responsibilities, reporting; ECSGS costing, manpower, effort tracking; ECSGS logistic (when relevant); organisation of individual OUs and SDCs under ECSGS coordination. Sections 9 and 10 contain global and local organisation details, and the names of responsible staff. The management principles expressed in this document are a coherent extension of those described in the ECSGS Science Implementation Plan. The document is compliant with the ECSS standards, as tailored for the Euclid SGS

Enabling planetary science across light-years. Ariel Definition Study Report

Ariel, the Atmospheric Remote-sensing Infrared Exoplanet Large-survey, was adopted as the fourth medium-class mission in ESA's Cosmic Vision programme to be launched in 2029. During its 4-year mission, Ariel will study what exoplanets are made of, how they formed and how they evolve, by surveying a diverse sample of about 1000 extrasolar planets, simultaneously in visible and infrared wavelengths. It is the first mission dedicated to measuring the chemical composition and thermal structures of hundreds of transiting exoplanets, enabling planetary science far beyond the boundaries of the Solar System. The payload consists of an off-axis Cassegrain telescope (primary mirror 1100 mm x 730 mm ellipse) and two separate instruments (FGS and AIRS) covering simultaneously 0.5-7.8 micron spectral range. The satellite is best placed into an L2 orbit to maximise the thermal stability and the field of regard. The payload module is passively cooled via a series of V-Groove radiators; the detectors for the AIRS are the only items that require active cooling via an active Ne JT cooler. The Ariel payload is developed by a consortium of more than 50 institutes from 16 ESA countries, which include the UK, France, Italy, Belgium, Poland, Spain, Austria, Denmark, Ireland, Portugal, Czech Republic, Hungary, the Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, Estonia, and a NASA contribution

Odometers on regular languages

Odometers or "adding machines" are usually introduced in the context of positional numeration systems built on a strictly increasing sequence of integers. We generalize this notion to systems defined on an arbitrary infinite regular language. In this latter situation, if (A, <) is a totally ordered alphabet, then enumerating the words of a regular language L over A with respect to the induced genealogical ordering gives a one-to-one correspondence between N and L. In this general setting the odometer is not defined on a set of sequences of digits but on a set of pairs of sequences where the first (resp. the second) component of the pair is an infinite word over A (resp. an infinite sequence of states of the minimal automaton of L). We study some properties of the odometer such as continuity, injectivity, surjectivity, minimality,... We then study some particular cases: we show the equivalence of this new function with the classical odometer built upon a sequence of integers whenever the set of greedy representations of all the integers is a regular language; we also consider substitution numeration systems as well as the connection with beta-numerations

Combinatorics, words and symbolic dynamics

Surveys trends arising from the applications and interactions between combinatorics, symbolic dynamics and theoretical computer science

Eco-PVC : catalysis polymerization initiator, a new eco-friendly way for the synthesis of PVC

Le but de ce travail de thèse, réalisé en partenariat avec la société INEOS, est de développer un système catalytique permettant de rendre plus efficace la polymérisation du chlorure de vinyle par voie radicalaire dans les conditions expérimentales industrielles. Dans cette optique, notre objectif a consisté à mettre en place et étudier une méthode permettant d’activer la décomposition des peroxydes utilisés pour l’amorçage de la réaction. Cette activation est obtenue au moyen de « kickers », constitués de combinaisons catalytiques appropriées. Une étape préalable de mise au point a été effectuée sur monomère modèle, l’acétate de vinyle, avant de transposer les résultats obtenus sur le chlorure de vinyle. Les caractéristiques finales du polymère obtenu ont été évaluées par SEC, RMN, MEB, et par des tests de stabilité thermique, afin d’évaluer l’impact du procédé mis au point sur le matériau.La mise au point d’un tel procédé pourrait permettre au final une économie très substantielle à la fois d’énergie dans la phase d’amorçage de la polymérisation où il faut apporter de l’énergie pour décomposer les peroxydes, et également lorsque la réaction a atteint son régime, où il est nécessaire de refroidir le réacteur. On aboutit à une efficacité énergétique substantielle, dans un contexte de production d’un polymère destiné à des applications de commodité. Cette thèse se positionne dans le cadre du pôle de compétitivité MAUD (Matériaux et Application pour une Utilisation Durable, avec sa thématique affichée « procédés performants », et elle est également clairement centrée sur deux domaines d’activités relevant de la compétence de l’ADEME : « la réalisation d’économies d’énergie et de matières premières », et « le développement des technologies propres et économes ».The purpose of this work, carried out in partnership with the INEOS company, is to develop a catalytic system able to improve the efficiency of the radical polymerization of vinyl chloride in industrial conditions. In this context, our objective was to develop and investigate a method to enable the decomposition of peroxides used for the initiation of the reaction. This activation is achieved by addition of organic or inorganic molecules called "kickers", which act in a catalytic manner. A preliminary study was performed on vinyl acetate as surrogate monomer, before transposing the results on vinyl chloride. The final characteristics of the polymer were evaluated by SEC, NMR, SEM, and thermal stability tests were performed in order to assessed the impact of the process on the final polymer material. The development of such a process could lead to substantial savings in terms of energy, either in the first stage of the polymerization where heat is required to decompose peroxides, or when the polymerization reaction, which is an exothermic phenomenon, has reached a stage where it is necessary to cool the reactor in order to control the process. This leads to substantial energy efficiency in a context of producing a polymer for convenience applications. This thesis has been initiated within the Pôle de compétitivité MAUD (Materials and Applications for Sustainable Use), within its thematic "efficient processes," and has been financially supported by the ADEME focusing on two areas of activity : "the achievement of energy and raw materials savings," and "the development of clean and efficient technologies.