Technical Platforms

Observatoire de Paris and its laboratories finance, develop or contribute to several platforms bringing together a range of technical resources and expertise, access to which is open (under certain conditions) to academic and industrial collaborations outside the establishment.

MesoPSL

MesoPSL is a meso-center for supercomputing and distributed storage (“Tier-2” in supercomputing pyramid), open to the whole PSL community. MesoPSL is hosted by the Observatoire de Paris-PSL on the Meudon campus. MesoPSL is part of the mesocenter network MesoNET.

MESPAL

MESPAL (Moyens d’essais, Salles Propres, AIT/AIV du LIRA), groups together all the test benches, calibration, clean rooms and integration/verification teams at the LIRA laboratory in Meudon. MESPAL is one of the shared platforms within the PARADISE Research Infrastructure of the CNRS Terre & Univers.

Technological Research and Development Centre (CTRD)

The CTRD contributes to the development of new sensors, particularly superconductors, and micro-devices for astronomical applications. It brings together nano and microfabrication resources, including an ISO 7-compliant clean room, as well as cryogenic testing facilities. The CTRD is a shared facility within the Paris Observatory, and is part of the Paris network of local cleanrooms and the national RENATECH+ network. The CTRD is placed under the responsibility of the LUX Instrumental Research group, with financial management of its cleanroom shared with UNIDIA (see below).

UNIDIA

The role of the UNIDIA Research and Support Unit is to provide technical support to the LUX laboratories and departments in (1) the definition, design and implementation of major astronomical instrument projects on the ground and in space, and (2) the digital tools used to analyze the data generated by these instruments. To this end, UNIDIA manages several technical platforms, including a metrology room, an integration room, a mechanical workshop and a vacuum/cryogenics room. UNIDIA is also co-responsible for the financial management of the clean room of the Paris Observatory’s CTRD.

EFISOFT - ELT French Instrument control SOFTware team

EFISOT is the national center for the development of control software applications for ELT instruments. Its main mission is to develop software applications for the control and command of ELT instruments, rationalizing the involvement of experts from the center’s partner laboratories (CRAL, OP/UNIDIA, IPAG, IRAP, LAGRANGE, LAM and OP/LIRA). The center operates as a project coordinated by CNRS Terre & Univers.