ESA Science & Technology - Loading CHEOPS into a thermal-vacuum chamber

A view of the complete CHEOPS satellite, surrounded by thermal test hardware before insertion into the thermal-vacuum chamber at the Airbus Engineering Validation Test facility in Toulouse, France.

A double-armed frame, mounted above the satellite, holds a heater plate opposite the flat, silver-coloured radiators at the rear of the black telescope tube. During operations, the radiators that cool the detector will not be exposed to direct sunlight; however, for certain pointing directions, the radiators will be exposed to warming radiation from the Earth. A dedicated heater was mounted in front of the radiators to simulate the effect of this warming.