What is CHEOPS ? | An European Space Agency Mission (Part-5)

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Contribution in building

Countries which contibuted in this mission

1. European space agency is the main architect of this mission.
2. The contractor for the design and construction of the spacecraft is Airbus Defence and Space in Spain. 
3. An association of 11 E.S.A Member States led by Switzerland provided essential elements of the mission, six countries were involved in building the instrument, which are as follows:

• The mechanical structure was built in Switzerland.
• Focal plane assembly in Germany.
• Baffle in Belgium.
• Optics in Italy.
• Data processing unit in Austria and the radiators in Hungary. E.S.A also contributed to the instrument development by procuring the focal plane detector (CCD).

Launching of CHEOPS

Soyuz rocket

CHEOPS will be a secondary passenger on a Soyuz-Fregat rocket (Russian launch vehicle) launching from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana in 2019. The launcher will deliver CHEOPS directly to its operational orbit i.e 700 km above Earth. This orbit will allow the rear of the craft to permanently face the Sun with a minimum number of eclipses, offering a stable thermal environment and keeping stray light to a minimum while the instrument is observing night-side targets in the direction opposite to the Sun. During each orbit the satellite will slowly rotate around

the telescope line of sight to keep the instrument radiators orientated away from Earth and therefore maintain the required detector temperature stability needed for precise measurements.

After the launch and in-orbit commissioning confirmation that satellite is functioning correctly, E.S.A will hand over control to the Consortium mission operations centre located at I.N.T.A in Torrejon de Ardoz, Spain.

Operations of CHEOPS

The Consortium science operations centre located at the University of Geneva will be responsible for the processing, archiving and distribution of science data. Planning of observations will be carried out there using mission planning software developed in Portugal, and then observations will be communicated to the mission operations centre, where commands will be up-linked and data down-linked via ground station antennas at Villafranca and Torrejon (Spain). During the early mission operations, CHEOPS will make use of the E.S.A ground station located at Kiruna (Sweden). 

Kiruna S station

Up to 10% of each year will be reserved for activities to monitor the satellite’s performance and fix any problems. Observations of a list of exoplanet targets defined by the CHEOPS Science Team – scientists associated with the institutes within the CHEOPS mission Consortium – will account for 80% of the science observing time. 

The remaining 20% will be available to scientists worldwide, who can apply to use CHEOPS through the E.S.A-run Guest Observers Program. Proposals will be selected by an independent committee based on scientific merit and the applicability of CHEOPS, thus enabling the community at large to capitalise on the unique capabilities of CHEOPS. All data will be made public through the CHEOPS archive after a proprietary period.

First the raw data from the satellite will be processed into usable science data by the Consortium. For example, software from Switzerland will be used to ‘unpack’ the data that arrives from the ground station, while France will be responsible for the software that automatically processes the raw data, with contributions from Portugal. Processed data will be stored in an archive that is also developed in Portugal, with a backup archive hosted by Italy.

The UK will provide ‘quick look’ software for checking instrument health, while Switzerland developed software will simulate the behaviour of the instrument in orbit. Sweden has developed software to package data generated by the simulator, which can then be processed in the same way as real spacecraft data and used for testing. The division of tasks across the various centers spread across Europe reflects the collaborative nature of this European

exoplanet mission.

Honouring the students

Drawings of children

The CHEOPS Consortium invited schoolchildren to produce drawings that were inspired by the mission. To thank students for their hardwork CHEOPS will fly with nearly three thousand drawings, which have been shrunk by a factor of 1000 and engraved on two 18 x 24 cm titanium plates attached to the satellite. These creative drawings were submitted by thousands of children sharing their excitement for space; they sketched everything from our own Solar System, starry skies and astronauts, to imaginative illustrations of stars and extra-solar worlds.

With this article i would like to inform all of you that CHEOPS mission series is now completed, kindly share this series to everyone.

Peace☮