CHEOPS´s (CHaracterising ExOPlanet Satellite) main science goals are to measure the bulk density of super-Earths and Neptunes orbiting bright stars and provide suitable targets for future in-depth characterisation studies of exoplanets in these mass and size ranges.
Deimos plays a major role in CHEOPS, being the responsible for the whole mission planning. This includes defining how the telescope should behave in order to achieve its scientific goals. The company is also responsible for the Data Archive and Dissemination, required for the storage of all mission data (L0, L1 and L2) and for the Dissemination Channel to all authorized users.
CHEOPS will be a small spacecraft with a total launch mass of approximately 250 kg. The mission has one instrument – a photometer with a single charge coupled device, operating mainly in the visible, that is at the focal plane of an on-axis Ritchey-Chrétien telescope of 32cm diameter (clear aperture diameter of 30cm). All platform requirements are aimed at supporting the functionality of the payload and its ultrahigh photometric precision.