Review

The Ariel payload: design progress and structural model outcomes

P. Eccleston Andrew Caldwell Georgia Bishop L. Desjonquères R. Drummond A. Davidson M. Whalley M. Caldwell C. Pearson C. Simpson Lee Hamer Stephen Davey Sandy Fok D. Bruzzi Mark Anderson Katherine Ostojic P. Umesh Gareth Rees E. Pascale G. Morgante M. Focardi G. Savini M. Ollivier M. Rataj G. Malaguti G. Tinetti A. Tozzi P. Chioetto P. Picchi E. Pace P. Zuppella G. Preti C. Serre J. M. Gómez J. Pérez-Álvarez Andrés García Pérez Alejandro Fernández N. Bowles J. Martignac M. Berth'e B. Horeau Martin Crook M. Hills Charles Padley S. Makinen Z. Kovács J. Szőke M. Sobiecki K. Skup R. Ottensamer G. Mosenlechner W. Holmes R. Goullioud Mark J. Swain G. Guinea S. Pedersen Lukáš Steiger U. Barozzi A. Paternoster L. Maddii Salma Fahmy L. Puig D. Jollet A. Svedevall Thierry Tirolien J. Salvignol J. Halain Riccardo Rinaldi A. Vargalui

Aug 2026 · Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation · Vol 14145, pp. 141450B - 141450B-13 · 3 citations · 3 references

Engineering

Abstract

The Ariel space mission will characterize spectroscopically the atmospheres of a large and diverse sample of hundreds of exoplanets. Through the study of targets with a wide range of planetary parameters (mass, density, equilibrium temperature) and host star types the origin for the diversity observed in known exoplanets will be better understood. Ariel is an ESA Medium class science mission (M4) with a spacecraft bus developed by industry under contract to ESA, and a Payload provided by a consortium of national funding agencies in ESA member states, plus contributions from NASA, the CSA and JAXA. The payload is based on a 1-meter class telescope operated at below 60K, built all in Aluminium, which feeds two science instruments. A multi-channel photometer and low-resolution spectrometer instrument (the FGS, Fine Guidance System instrument) operating from 0.5 – 1.95 microns in wavelength provides both guidance information for stabilizing the spacecraft pointing as well as vital scientific information from spectroscopy in the near-infrared and photometry in the visible channels. The Ariel InfraRed Spectrometer (AIRS) instrument provides medium resolution spectroscopy from 1.95 – 7.8 microns wavelength coverage over two instrument channels. Supporting subsystems provide the necessary mechanical, thermal and electronics support to the cryogenic payload. This paper provides an overview of the design of the overall payload for the Ariel mission, with a focus on the design updates of the Payload since the payload PDR in 2023, along with the outcomes from the build of the payload module Structural Model (pSM) in 2025 and the mechanical environmental testing of this pSM in Q1 2026. Results of the mechanical environmental testing and the lessons that have been learnt through the build and test process will be outline. The instruments and payload subsystem are developing Engineering Models and Qualification Models which are in build and test and this paper will present the current development status overview for the payload.

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