CHEOPS in-flight performance: A comprehensive look at the first 3.5 years of operations

TL;DR

CHEOPS, a space telescope for exoplanet transits, has maintained excellent performance over 3.5 years, with comprehensive monitoring showing its aging has not compromised mission objectives, providing valuable insights for future space missions.

Contribution

This paper provides a detailed analysis of CHEOPS's in-flight performance over 3.5 years, including lessons learned and methodologies for instrument monitoring and data quality improvement.

Findings

CHEOPS continues to meet scientific requirements after 3.5 years.

Instrument aging has not impacted the mission's performance.

Systematic modelling enhances data precision.

Abstract

CHEOPS is a space telescope specifically designed to monitor transiting exoplanets orbiting bright stars. In September 2023, CHEOPS completed its nominal mission and remains in excellent operational conditions. The mission has been extended until the end of 2026. Scientific and instrumental data have been collected throughout in-orbit commissioning and nominal operations, enabling a comprehensive analysis of the mission's performance. In this article, we present the results of this analysis with a twofold goal. First, we aim to inform the scientific community about the present status of the mission and what can be expected as the instrument ages. Secondly, we intend for this publication to serve as a legacy document for future missions, providing insights and lessons learned from the successful operation of CHEOPS. To evaluate the instrument performance in flight, we developed a comprehensive monitoring and characterisation programme. It consists of dedicated observations that allow us to characterise the instrument's response. In addition to the standard collection of nominal science and housekeeping data, these observations provide input for detecting, modelling, and correcting instrument systematics, discovering and addressing anomalies, and comparing the instrument's actual performance with expectations. The precision of the CHEOPS measurements has enabled the mission objectives to be met and exceeded. Careful modelling of the instrumental systematics allows the data quality to be significantly improved during the light curve analysis phase, resulting in more precise scientific measurements. CHEOPS is compliant with the driving scientific requirements of the mission. Although visible, the ageing of the instrument has not affected the mission's performance.