Children between the ages of 8 and 14 from any ESA member state or cooperating state have been invited to submit drawings that will be miniaturized and engraved on two plaques that will be put on the satellite.

Up to 3,000 drawings will be shrunk down by a factor of about 1,000 and engraved on the metal plaques that will fly into space on Cheops. If more than 3,000 entries are received, ESA and its partners will organize a lottery to select the drawings for engraving. The art needs to be in black-and-white, created with a black pencil or felt-tip pen, to ensure that the engraving process accurately captures the drawings as they are transferred to the metal plaques.



To take part,  download and print out a standard template provided here, make your drawing on it, and complete your contact details. Then send it via letter to a local Cheops mission partner institution or to ESA directly. Entries will be accepted until 31 October 2015, and the postmark will be considered proof of the date of posting.

Cheops – for CHaracterising ExOPlanets Satellite – is a space telescope that will observe nearby stars known to host planets, and is being built as a collaboration between ESA’s Science Programme and Switzerland. The planned launch date is at the end of 2017.