The CHaracterising ExOPlanet Satellite (CHEOPS) is a mission jointly led by Switzerland and ESA which was selected in October 2012 as the first small-class mission in the ESA Science Programme. CHEOPS will be the first space observatory dedicated to search for transits of exoplanets by means of ultrahigh precision photometry on bright stars already known to host planets. The CHEOPS telescope will have access to more than 70% of the sky, which will provide the unique capability of determining accurate radii for planets for which the mass has already been estimated from ground-based spectroscopic surveys. This, in turn, will allow a first order characterisation of the planets' internal structure (i.e. the determination of the mean density, which provides direct insights into its composition). CHEOPS will also provide precise radii for new planets discovered by the next generation of ground-and space-based transits surveys. CHEOPS launch is expected by March/April 2019, and its nominal lifetime is 3.5 years with the possibility of an extension of 1.5 years.

The CHEOPS Mission

The CHaracterising ExOPlanet Satellite (CHEOPS) was selected in 2012, as the first small mission in the ESA Science Programme and successfully launched in December 2019. CHEOPS is a partnership between ESA and Switzerland with important contributions by ten additional ESA Member States. CHEOPS is the first mission dedicated to search for transits of exoplanets using ultrahigh precision photometry on bright stars already known to host planets. As a follow-up mission, CHEOPS is mainly dedicated to improving, whenever possible, existing radii measurements or provide first accurate measurements for a subset of those planets for which the mass has already been estimated from ground-based spectroscopic surveys and to following phase curves. CHEOPS will provide prime targets for future spectroscopic atmospheric characterisation. 
Requirements on the photometric precision and stability have been derived for stars with magnitudes ranging from 6 to 12 in the V band. In particular, CHEOPS shall be able to detect Earth-size planets transiting G5 dwarf stars in the magnitude range between 6 and 9 by achieving a photometric precision of 20 ppm in 6 hours of integration. For K stars in the magnitude range between 9 and 12, CHEOPS shall be able to detect transiting Neptune-size planets achieving a photometric precision of 85 ppm in 3 hours of integration. This is achieved by using a single, frame-transfer, back-illuminated CCD detector at the focal plane assembly of a 33.5 cm diameter telescope. The 280 kg spacecraft has a pointing accuracy of about 1 arcsec rms and orbits on a sun-synchronous dusk-dawn orbit at 700 km altitude. 
The nominal mission lifetime is 3.5 years. During this period, 20% of the observing time is available to the community through a yearly call and a discretionary time programme managed by ESA.

The CHEOPS mission

The aerospace sector is evolving due to reduced launch costs and standardization of small satellite platforms. This research, aligned with European Guidelines for Thermo-Elastic Verification, addresses the pointing precision gap in small satellites by assessing space telescope performance using uncertainty propagation in thermo-elastic models. The methodology will be directly applied to an Earth observation space telescope, VINIS, currently under development by the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC). This procedure helps to identify key design elements impacting its functionality. Thirteen elements were identified as main contributors to the deformations in the optical bench. Due to the bench's crucial role in the telescope's performance, this paper also explores how results vary with different sandwich panel modelling techniques and the enhancements from design modifications. While the focus is on space telescopes, this approach has broader applicability to thermo-elastic analysis of various space instruments. 

Evaluation of the thermo-elastic response of space telescopes using uncertainty assessment

CHEOPS (CHaracterizing ExOPlanets Satellite) is an ESA Small Mission, planned to be launched in early 2019 and whose main goal is the photometric precise characterization of the radii of exoplanets orbiting bright stars (V<12) already known to host planets. The telescope is composed by two optical systems: a compact on-axis F/5 Ritchey-Chretien, with an aperture of 320 mm and a Back-End Optics, reshaping a defocused PSF on the detector. In this paper we describe how alignment and integration, as well as ground support equipment, realized on a demonstrator model at INAF Padova, evolved and were successfully applied during the AIV phase of the flight model telescope subsystem at LEONARDO, the Italian industrial prime contractor premises.

From a demonstration model to the flight model: AIV procedures and results for CHEOPS telescope

CHEOPS is the first small class mission adopted by ESA in the framework of the Cosmic Vision 2015-2025. Its launch is foreseen in early 2019. CHEOPS aims to get transits follow-up measurements of already known exo-planets, hosted by near bright stars (V<12). Thanks to its ultra-high precision photometry, CHEOPS science goal is accurately measure the radii of planets in the super-Earth to Neptune mass range (1<Mplanet/MEarth<20). The knowledge of the radius by transit measurements, combined with the determination of planet mass through radial velocity techniques, will allow the determination/refinement of the bulk density for a large number of small planets during the scheduled 3.5 years life mission. The instrument is mainly composed of a 320 mm aperture diameter Ritchey-Chretien telescope and a Back End Optics, delivering a de-focused star image onto the focal plane. In this paper we describe the opto-thermo-mechanical model of the instrument and the measurements obtained during the opto-mechanical integration and alignment phase at Leonardo company premises, highlighting the level of congruence between the predictions and measurements.

A comparison between the opto-thermo-mechanical model and lab measurements for CHEOPS

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A comparison between the opto-thermo-mechanical model and lab measurements for CHEOPS