Optical and mechanical design of a straylight rejection baffle for CoRoT

The COROT mission is part of the program "Petites Missions" of CNES (French space agency). It implies international cooperation between France, Belgium, Germany, Austria, Spain and the European Space Agency (ESA). COROT aims to perform astroseismology measurements and to detect exoplanets. Long duration observations of stars will be used to detect periodic variations with an afocal telescope followed by a dioptric objective and 4 CCDs. Due to the orbit of the spacecraft (low altitude polar orbit) and even if the observation are performed in a direction perpendicular to orbit plane, the measurements can be disturbed by the straylight reflected on the earth (albedo) that can generate periodic perturbation. CSL is in charge of the design and procurement, with the help of Belgian industries, of a baffle and its protective cover that will be mounted on top of the afocal entrance telescope. The requirements are very stringent from the optical point of view as well as from the mechanical point of view. The rejection of the baffle must be of the order of 10[SUP]13[/SUP] for field angles above 20 degrees while the allocated mass is 19 kilograms.