PLATO–a robotic observatory for the Antarctic plateau

¹ School of Physics, University of New South Wales, NSW 2052, Australia
² Solar Mobility Pty Ltd., Thornleigh, NSW 2120, Australia
³ Physics Department, University of Auckland, Auckland 1142, New Zealand
⁴ Nanjing Institute of Astronomical Optics and Technology, Nanjing 210042, China
⁵ Purple Mountain Observatory, Nanjing 210008, China
⁶ National Astronomical Observatories, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100012, China
⁷ Steward Observatory, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA
⁸ Department of Physics and Engineering, Macquarie University, NSW 2109, Australia
⁹ Anglo-Australian Observatory, NSW 1710, Australia
¹⁰ Polar Research Institute of China, Pudong, Shanghai 200136, China
¹¹ School of Physics, University of Exeter, Exeter, EX4 4QL, UK
¹² Caltech Optical Observatories, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA
¹³ Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA
¹⁴ Thirty Meter Telescope Project, Pasadena, CA 91107, USA
¹⁵ Tianjin Normal University, Tianjin 300074, China
¹⁶ Physics Department, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843, USA
¹⁷ Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics and The Enrico Fermi Institute, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637, USA

Corresponding author: m.ashley@unsw.edu.au

Abstract

PLATO is a fully-robotic observatory designed for operation in Antarctica. It generates its own electricity (about 1 kW), heat (sufficient to keep two 10-foot shipping containers comfortably above 0°C when the outside temperature is at -70°C), and connects to the internet using the Iridium satellite system (providing ~30 MB/day of data transfer). Following a successful first year of operation at Dome A during 2008, PLATO was upgraded with new instruments for 2009.