ESA Science & Technology - Keeping the instrument free of dust

Thomas Beck, the CHEOPS instrument system engineer, carefully covering the radiator of the CHEOPS satellite to protect it from dust at the test facility at the University of Bern, Switzerland. The radiator will be exposed to deep space in orbit and is coupled to the detector, which will be cooled to a temperature of -40 degrees Celsius to minimise noise and achieve the ultra-high precision measurements that astronomers need to characterise exoplanets. This image gives a clear impression of the size of the instrument.