Performance of the autonomous PLATO Antarctic Observatory over two full years

For continuous observation at locations that are inhospitable for humans, the desirability of autonomous observatories is self evident. PLATO, the ‘PLATeau Observatory’ was designed to host an easily configurable instrument suite in the extremely cold conditions on the Antarctic plateau, and can provide up to 1 kW of power for the instruments. Powered by jet fuel and the Sun, PLATO and its instruments have been taking nearly uninterrupted astronomical science and sitetesting data at Dome A, the coldest, highest and driest location