Switzerland is a space nation!

ESA – CHEOPS Mission logo.

August 28, 2018

Monday, August 27, 2018, a ceremony was held Monday in the presence of Johann Schneider-Ammann before the departure of the satellite “Swiss” CHEOPS for abroad.

Tested in Switzerland, the CHEOPS satellite will undergo new tests abroad before being sent to French Guiana to be launched. Equipped with an exoplanet observation telescope developed in Bern, it also carries children’s drawings presented on Monday.

CHEOPS (CHaracterizing ExOPlanets Satellite) was subjected to vibration tests at Ruag Space in Zurich. This is his last visit to Switzerland before its launch in what is the first mission of European Space Agency (ESA) to be placed under Swiss command.

CHEOPS: Europe’s Exoplanet Transit Hunter. Image Credits: ESA/ATG medialab

The space telescope carried on board was developed by the University of Bern. Companies Ruag Space and Thales Alenia contributed decisively. In total, more than a hundred researchers and engineers from eleven countries participate in the mission.

2700 drawings reduced 1000 times

A ceremony marked Monday in Zurich the presentation of 2700 drawings of children from ESA member countries. Selected from 8000 drawings sent from the four corners of Europe, they were engraved on titanium plates in a version 1000 times smaller than their original. A technique developed by a Bern University of Applied Sciences made this tour de force possible.

Cheops unveiled plates

Image above: Two titanium plates with thousands of miniatures made by children have been fixed to the CHaracterising ExOPlanets Satellite, Cheops. Each plate measures nearly 18 cm across and 24 cm high. The plates, prepared by a team at the Bern University of Applied Sciences in Burgdorf, Switzerland, were unveiled in a dedicated ceremony at RUAG on August 27, 2018. Image Credits: University of Bern / A. Moser.

“Our goal was to enthuse the next generation for space research, hence the idea of ​​children’s drawings,” Astronomer Willy Benz, a professor at the University of Bern, told Keystone-ATS. The researcher is strongly involved in the CHEOPS mission. He hopes that the children who sent their drawings will also follow the mission on the project’s online site.

Image above: Cheops plates, two titanium plates and thousands of miniatures made by children have been fixed to the CHaracterizing ExOPlanets Satellite, Cheops. Each plate measures nearly 18 cm across and 24 cm high. Image Credits: G. Bucher / Bern University of Applied Sciences.

Three Swiss children – a teenager from Berne and two brothers from Chavannes-des-Bois – whose drawings were selected were present at the ceremony. They were fascinated.

Switzerland, “a space nation”

The ceremony took place in the presence of Federal Councilor Johann Schneider-Ammann. The Minister of Economy stressed the importance of the space sector for Switzerland as a scientific, economic and innovation center. “Switzerland is a space nation!”, He concluded in an allusion to this joint operation between ESA, the University of Bern and an international industrial consortium.

Unveiling two titanium plates with engraved drawings in miniature version, Schneider-Ammann stressed the need to encourage the next generation in mathematics, computer science, natural sciences and technology.

Image Above: CHEOPS Departure Ceremony from RUAG, Switzerland. Image Credits: University of Bern / A. Moser.

The satellite will now be sent to the Netherlands and then to Spain for further testing. He will arrive in French Guiana in early 2019, where he will be launched by a Soyuz rocket in the first half of next year. CHEOPS will be placed in orbit 700 km around the earth.

Exoplanets analyzed in detail

Its mission will not aim to discover new exoplanets (planets from distant star systems), 24 years after the discovery of the first of its kind by Didier Queloz and Michel Mayor, of the University of Geneva, in 1995. It must reap data on exoplanets already known.

Exoplanet transiting his sun. Animation Credit: NASA

Their atmosphere and the relationship between their mass and their shape will be analyzed to discover if they are composed of rock, ice or gas. This information will make it possible to determine which ones will be the subject of research on possible traces of life, during future missions. CHEOPS will be able to operate for a minimum of 3 ½ years.

Related article:

Artwork unveiled on satellite exoplanet
http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Artwork_unveiled_on_exoplanet_satellite

Related links:

ESA CHEOPS: http://sci.esa.int/cheops/

Ruag: https://www.ruag.com/en

Images (mentioned), Animation (mentioned), Text, Credits: ATS / ESA / Orbiter.ch Aerospace / Roland Berga.

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