VPU Industrial Team - Gaia
Gaia contributors
Gaia was proposed in 1993 and since then, many people have been involved in the Gaia mission, whether at ESA, at industry side or at one of the institutes involved in the Gaia data processing. The Gaia Data Processing and Analysis Consortium (DPAC) is a collaboration which consists of around 450 scientists and engineers.
The list of Gaia contributors presented here should not be considered a complete representation of the entire consortium and should not be considered as a list of currenly active people on the Gaia mission. A more complete list of Gaia contributors that were involved in the creation of the Gaia catalogues can be obtained from the author lists of the Gaia Collaboration overview papers (for Gaia Data Release 1 see here, for Gaia Data Release 2 see here, for Gaia Early Data Release 3 see here, for the full Gaia Data Release 3 see here, for Gaia Focused Product Release see here). A history of contributions to the Gaia mission can be found from the acknowledgements given with each data release.
Gaia DPAC members who wish to be featured on these pages can contact the Gaia Helpdesk. Anyone who wishes to be removed from this website can contact the Gaia Helpdesk.
 |
VPU Industrial Team EADS-Astrium, UK |
|
The photo above is of the EADS Astrium UK team currently working on the development of the Video Processing Units (VPUs) for Gaia. Astrium UK, is one of the most experienced space companies in Europe, and members of this team have recently been involved in projects such as Skynet 5, Radarsat-2, the Galileo programme, Arabsat, Hotbird, Inmarsat 4, ESA's next generation Crypto processor and the development of the Gaia phased array antenna. A total of 7 identical VPUs will be required for the Gaia flight model. Each VPU handles data from one of the seven CCD rows of the focal plane assembly. VPU functionality covers collecting, processing and compression of data from the CCDs, generation of auxiliary science data, and transmission of data to the payload data handling unit where it is stored for subsequent transmission to the ground stations at Cebreros (Spain) and New Norcia (Australia). Both software and hardware elements will be used to implement the required functionality. The first Flight Model unit (one of 7 plus 1 spare) will be delivered in June 2009. The picture, taken during a recent team day in the UK, is courtesy of Peter Bennie (EADS Astrium, UK). A larger picture identifying everyone can be see here. [Published: 30/07/2007] |
|
Gaia people archive