Supply and Installation of A-Step Mount Drive

Description

The University of Birmingham and CNRS have closely collaborated since 2019 to develop a program of observations of exoplanets from Antarctica in the frame of the ASTEP project lead by the Lagrange Laboratory at OCA. A new focal instrument was developed for the ASTEP telescope. The University of Birmingham contributed a new camera with large bandwidth and this will be installed on the telescope at the end of 2021 for its use during the southern winter 2022 and further. The scientific teams of the CNRS and the University of Birmingham, both agree to develop a new direct-drive mount, called ASTEP-Mount, specifically designed for the conditions in Antarctica, to replace the present ASTEP commercial mount. The University of Birmingham will provide a financial contribution to the CNRS which covers a part of the cost of the new mount and CNRS will be in charge of the purchase, assembly, tests, adaptation and installation of the ASTEP-Mount at the Concordia station in Antarctica. CNRS, the Observatoire de la Côte d'Azur, the University of Birmingham and ESA are contributing to this upgrade. Lot 1: The testing will be done at Laboratoire Lagrange, which is equipped with adequate facilities including a low temperature enclosure. The software development will also be done at Laboratoire Lagrange. All the logistics related to Concordia is fully managed by the French and Italian polar agencies IPEV and PNRA. The telescope runs in automatic mode and can be remotely controlled. Laboratoire Lagrange will be responsible for the robotic operations and yearly maintenance (one or two collaborators go on site every summer campaign). Daily maintenance will be handled by the winter-over crew as in previous years. The telescope is owned by Laboratoire Lagrange so the organisation will be decided only by the parties mentioned in this proposal. CNRS will openly collaborate with the University of Birmingham on the tools and procedures needed to properly read and manipulate PID (Proportional Integral Derivative) controllers used to tune a telescope's direct-drive mount securely and accurately. This transfer will take the form of detailed documentation.