A. Baglin - COROT/SWG/Milestone 2000, eds. E. Michel and A. Hui-Bon-Hoa

The COROT status

Annie Baglin
DESPA, Observatoire de Paris, 92195 Meudon, France

 

Since the time of the milestone the status of COROT has drastically changed.

The final decision is now taken, and Phase C/D has started.

The launch date is end of 2004. The planning is very tight: the instrument has to be delivered in 2003. The platform is under study and the mission profile has to be defined at the end of March. The observable region of the sky will then be fixed (forever!) at the 6th meeting of the Scientific Committee (April 2/3 2001).

The team is more numerous and more international.
Four new partners are joining us: Italy, Belgium, ESA, Germany.
Brazil is willing to contribute to the ground segment with an antenna, and India is trying to collaborate on the launcher.

The Scientific Committee is now completed with scientists of each of these entities and of each major French laboratory.
The general development of the project is under the responsibility of a Steering Committee, lead by CNES the prime contractor of the mission, including the representatives of the corresponding space agencies, the directors of the laboratories and CNES Directorate. Its first meeting is scheduled on April 24th 2001.

During these 4 years from now on to the launch, a lot of work has to be done to optimise the scientific programme, from both the "astronomical" and the "instrumental" sides.
The instrument design and preliminary experiments have shown that the scientific specifications are reachable, thanks to a careful control of the perturbators.
As soon as the orbit is fixed, the catalogue of the possible targets will be known and an optimum scenario of observations will have to be built, including the wishes of both programmes, and if possible also of the Additional Programmes.

COROT is the first mission to be flown with this ambitious programme.

In the mean time, MOST, the Canadian microsat, is being integrated; it will be ready for a launch by next year and to produce the first asteroseismic data on a few very bright stars within two or three years, and MONS, the Danish microsat, is preselected, and undergoing its phase A study.
Later on, EDDINGTON will continue and extend to almost all types of stars our knowledge of their seismic.