Updates Cheops Mission News & Updates

[Notebook]

Your chance to be a guest at an ESA launch. Got to be able to draw a bit. And win of course.

http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Launch_your_design_with_Cheops

2 November 2017
ESA is offering graphic designers and artists a unique opportunity to feature their work on the rocket carrying the Cheops satellite.

 

[Notebook]

18 December 2017 10:08
With the flight models of the CHEOPS spacecraft and telescope maturing, crucial tests can now be run with real hardware in place of simulations. The latest such tests involved operating the payload with the Mission Control System to test and validate real operational command sequences.

http://sci.esa.int/cheops/59883-10-...ng-flight-hardware-with-mission-control-code/

 

[Nicholas Kang]

Some updates:

1. CHEOPS fairing sticker winning design

A colourful design capturing the essence of ESA's CHEOPS mission, which will measure the size of planets as they cross in front of their parent stars, has been selected for the rocket carrying the satellite into space.

The design will be placed, together with ESA's and other logos, on the Soyuz rocket's fairing, the tough outer shell that protects the satellite during launch and as it passes through the atmosphere into space.

The winning designer, Denis Vrenko of Celje, Slovenia, is a 25 year-old graphic designer and final-year architecture student at the University of Ljubljana.

2. Arrived at Madrid!

Members of the CHEOPS consortium could be proud of their achievement as the science instrument of the upcoming exoplanet mission left Bern on its journey to Madrid last month.

The science instrument and its tailor-made handling equipment left Switzerland by truck in six containers, designed to provide protection from shock, moisture and dust, on 10 April 2018. Its safe arrival in Spain the following day marked a key milestone for the CHEOPS project and enabled Airbus Defence and Space Spain, the prime contractor that has designed the spacecraft, to integrate the science instrument and the spacecraft platform and begin test activities.

The science instrument, including among other elements the telescope and Charge Coupled Detector, or CCD, cannot operate without the satellite platform, which comprises solar panels, thrusters, radio transmitters and reaction wheels for providing power, propulsion, communications and attitude control.

One of two CHEOPS plaques that will carry children's drawings into space.
Credit: ESA/Boffin Media

The CHEOPS spacecraft during baffle cover alignment at Airbus Defence and Space Spain.
Credit: Airbus Defence and Space Spain​

Oh, and lastly, we have this:

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cuJMt-r4atU"]Cheops: how to build a planet-watcher model - YouTube[/ame]

The music is... hmm... :lol:

 

[Notebook]

11 March 2019 12:05
Recent months on the CHEOPS mission have seen the completion of spacecraft testing and the conclusion of a very important review, which determined that the satellite is ready to fly.

http://sci.esa.int/cheops/61203-16-cheops-is-ready-for-flight/

 

[Notebook]

ESA’s first mission dedicated to investigating planets outside our solar system is scheduled for launch on a Soyuz rocket from the European spaceport in French Guiana on 17 December 2019.

http://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Videos/2019/12/Cheops_Europe_s_Exoplanet_Mission

 

[Notebook]

Cheops: The Hunt for Exoplanets

http://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Videos/2019/12/Cheops_The_Hunt_for_Exoplanets

 

[Urwumpe]

The launch media kit is available:

https://sci.esa.int/web/cheops/-/cheops-launch-media-kit

 

[Urwumpe]

Can anybody else get into ESA Web TV today for watching the launch? The video player fails to connect here.

---------- Post added at 09:54 ---------- Previous post was at 09:52 ----------

Finally after 15 minutes of F5, the stream is back.

 

[Notebook]

Missed it!

Had trouble with the live feed yesterday.

 

[Urwumpe]

And separated successfully.

Switched over to the arianespace live stream to watch it, sadly missed the first minute of launch with another timeout until I was back online.

 

[Notebook]

Cheops liftoff.

http://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Videos/2019/12/Cheops_liftoff

 

[Notebook]

Six weeks after the launch of Cheops, ESA’s Characterising Exoplanet Satellite, the telescope cover was opened as part of the mission’s in-orbit commissioning.

www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Cheops/Cheops_opens_its_eye_to_the_sky

 

[Notebook]

ESA’s exoplanet-observer Cheops acquired the first image of its initial target star, following the successful telescope cover opening on 29 January 2020. The intentionally blurry image is a product of the specially designed telescope optics, which are deliberately defocused to maximise the precision of Cheops’ measurements and enable its unprecedented study of exoplanets, or planets in other solar systems.

http://www.esa.int/Science_Explorat..._blur_First_image_by_exoplanet_watcher_Cheops

 

[kuddel]

"Deliberately defocused images" is an interesting approach.
Never thought about that, but in the view of "only" being interested in the stars brightness-changes, this makes totally sense.

 

[Notebook]

Cheops, ESA’s new exoplanet mission, has successfully completed its almost three months of in-orbit commissioning, exceeding expectations for its performance. The satellite, which will commence routine science operations by the end of April, has already obtained promising observations of known exoplanet-hosting stars, with many exciting discoveries to come.

http://www.esa.int/Science_Explorat...its_first_exoplanets_and_is_ready_for_science

 

[Notebook]

ESA’s new exoplanet mission, Cheops, has found a nearby planetary system to contain one of the hottest and most extreme extra-solar planets known to date: WASP-189 b. The finding, the very first from the mission, demonstrates Cheops’ unique ability to shed light on the Universe around us by revealing the secrets of these alien worlds.

First results from Cheops: ESA’s exoplanet observer reveals extreme alien world

ESA’s new exoplanet mission, Cheops, has found a nearby planetary system to contain one of the hottest and most extreme extra-solar planets known to date: WASP-189 b. The finding, the very first from the mission, demonstrates Cheops’ unique ability to shed light on the Universe around us by...

www.esa.int