The ground support equipment for the E-NIS instrument on-board the ESA-Euclid Dark Energy Mission in the baseline configuration presented in phase A

Euclid is a high-precision survey mission to map the geometry of the Dark Universe. The Euclid Mission concept presented in the Assessment Phase Study Report1 was selected by ESA on February 2010 to undergo a competitive Definition Phase. Euclid is a candidate for launch in the first slice of the Cosmic Vision Plan (M1/M2), with a possible launch date of 2018. In this paper we refer to the instrument baseline configuration identified in the Assessment Phase. It consisted of a Korsch telescope with a primary mirror of 1.2 m diameter and a focal plane hosting 3 scientific instruments, each with a field of view of 0.5 deg2: (1) E-VIS: a CCD based optical imaging channel, (2) E-NIP: a NIR imaging photometry channel, and (3) E-NIS: a NIR slitless spectral channel. We present the conceptual design developed in the Assessment Phase study for the Ground Support Equipment required to support the assembly, integration and verification operations at instrument level for the E-NIS baseline configuration, with particular regards to the scientific and calibration activities.