The extreme UV imager of solar orbiter: from detailed design to flight model

Abstract

The Extreme Ultraviolet Imager (EUI) on-board the Solar Orbiter mission will provide full-sun and high-resolution image sequences of the solar atmosphere at selected spectral emission lines in the extreme and vacuum ultraviolet. After the breadboarding and prototyping activities that focused on key technologies, the EUI project has completed the design phase and has started the final manufacturing of the instrument and its validation. The EUI instrument has successfully passed its Critical Design Review (CDR). The process validated the detailed design of the Optical Bench unit and of its sub-units (entrance baffles, doors, mirrors, camera, and filter wheel mechanisms), and of the Electronic Box unit. In the same timeframe, the Structural and Thermal Model (STM) test campaign of the two units have been achieved, and allowed to correlate the associated mathematical models. The lessons learned from STM and the detailed design served as input to release the manufacturing of the Qualification Model (QM) and of the Flight Model (FM). The QM will serve to qualify the instrument units and sub-units, in advance of the FM acceptance tests and final on-ground calibration.