CHEOPS rocket sticker selected
The winning entry of the fairing sticker competition designed by Denis Vrenko. (Credit: ESA/D. Vrenko)
A colourful design by Denis Vrenko of Celje, Slovenia, will be featured on the rocket that will launch CHEOPS, the CHaracterising ExOplanets Satellite, into space.
Denis Vrenko is a twenty-five year old graphics designer and final-year architecture student at the University of Ljubljana. His design was one of over 300 entries in a competition organised by the European Space Agency ESA. The design will be placed, together with other logos, on the Soyuz rocket’s fairing, the tough outer shell that protects the satellite during launch and as it passes through the atmosphere into space.
CHEOPS, a partnership between ESA and Switzerland, will measure the size of planets as they transit in front of their host star. “Inspiration for my design was taken from images of Venus transiting our Sun and many other simulated silhouettes of different planets discovered by scientific missions using transit photometry such as NASA’s Kepler mission,” said Denis Vrenko: “As CHEOPS is using similar methods, the design represents silhouettes of planets transiting different stars and resembles visual representation of how these planets are detected.”
Guest jury member Joost Grootens, head of the master Information Design at Design Academy Eindhoven, The Netherlands, explains: “I was impressed by the diversity and quality of the designs. The winning entry has a very rich concept, and the bold colours will certainly stand out on the rocket when printed full size. Like any great design it is both simple and complex.”
Denis Vrenko is invited to attend the main CHEOPS launch event in Europe as a guest of ESA. The satellite is expected to be ready for flight by the end of the year.
More about the outcome of the fairing sticker competition at ESA:
http://sci.esa.int/cheops/60128-winning-exoplanet-rocket-sticker-selected/
