Central Units
The central units consist of the technical branches of construction, mechanics, clean rooms and test laboratories, electronics laboratories, and of the general services branch. This includes the computer center, the library, and the administration.
The MPS participates in numerous international space missions with its own scientific instruments. These are designed, developed, built, and tested for space suitability mainly at the institute´s technical facilities.
For this, members of staff in construction first produce exact drawings and plans of the new instruments. The mechanic and electronic subsystems are then manufactured in the workshops and laboratories according to these models. Several endurance tests are then performed, for instance, in the termal-vacuum chambers and at the vibration test stand. Only after passing these tests are the individual parts assembled to a full scientific instrument in the clean- and calibration rooms. Finally, the entire instrument is again closely checked for quality.
In parallel, members of staff of the computer center delvelop the operationg- and analysis software for the instrument in collaboration with the scientists. In addition, the computer center supports the scientists in analyzing scientific data and provides the necessary computation for numerical simulations.
