The Habitable Exoplanet Observatory (HabEx) Mission Concept Study Final Report
Abstract
The Habitable Exoplanet Observatory, or HabEx, has been designed to be the Great Observatory of the 2030s. For the first time in human history, technologies have matured sufficiently to enable an affordable space-based telescope mission capable of discovering and characterizing Earthlike planets orbiting nearby bright sunlike stars in order to search for signs of habitability and biosignatures. Such a mission can also be equipped with instrumentation that will enable broad and exciting general astrophysics and planetary science not possible from current or planned facilities. HabEx is a space telescope with unique imaging and multi-object spectroscopic capabilities at wavelengths ranging from ultraviolet (UV) to near-IR. These capabilities allow for a broad suite of compelling science that cuts across the entire NASA astrophysics portfolio. HabEx has three primary science goals: (1) Seek out nearby worlds and explore their habitability; (2) Map out nearby planetary systems and understand the diversity of the worlds they contain; (3) Enable new explorations of astrophysical systems from our own solar system to external galaxies by extending our reach in the UV through near-IR. This Great Observatory science will be selected through a competed GO program, and will account for about 50% of the HabEx primary mission. The preferred HabEx architecture is a 4m, monolithic, off-axis telescope that is diffraction-limited at 0.4 microns and is in an L2 orbit. HabEx employs two starlight suppression systems: a coronagraph and a starshade, each with their own dedicated instrument.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.2001.06683,
title = {The Habitable Exoplanet Observatory (HabEx) Mission Concept Study Final Report},
author = {B. Scott Gaudi and Sara Seager and Bertrand Mennesson and Alina Kiessling and Keith Warfield and Kerri Cahoy and John T. Clarke and Shawn Domagal-Goldman and Lee Feinberg and Olivier Guyon and Jeremy Kasdin and Dimitri Mawet and Peter Plavchan and Tyler Robinson and Leslie Rogers and Paul Scowen and Rachel Somerville and Karl Stapelfeldt and Christopher Stark and Daniel Stern and Margaret Turnbull and Rashied Amini and Gary Kuan and Stefan Martin and Rhonda Morgan and David Redding and H. Philip Stahl and Ryan Webb and Oscar Alvarez-Salazar and William L. Arnold and Manan Arya and Bala Balasubramanian and Mike Baysinger and Ray Bell and Chris Below and Jonathan Benson and Lindsey Blais and Jeff Booth and Robert Bourgeois and Case Bradford and Alden Brewer and Thomas Brooks and Eric Cady and Mary Caldwell and Rob Calvet and Steven Carr and Derek Chan and Velibor Cormarkovic and Keith Coste and Charlie Cox and Rolf Danner and Jacqueline Davis and Larry Dewell and Lisa Dorsett and Daniel Dunn and Matthew East and Michael Effinger and Ron Eng and Greg Freebury and Jay Garcia and Jonathan Gaskin and Suzan Greene and John Hennessy and Evan Hilgemann and Brad Hood and Wolfgang Holota and Scott Howe and Pei Huang and Tony Hull and Ron Hunt and Kevin Hurd and Sandra Johnson and Andrew Kissil and Brent Knight and Daniel Kolenz and Oliver Kraus and John Krist and Mary Li and Doug Lisman and Milan Mandic and John Mann and Luis Marchen and Colleen Marrese-Reading and Jonathan McCready and Jim McGown and Jessica Missun and Andrew Miyaguchi and Bradley Moore and Bijan Nemati and Shouleh Nikzad and Joel Nissen and Megan Novicki and Todd Perrine and Claudia Pineda and Otto Polanco and Dustin Putnam and Atif Qureshi and Michael Richards and A. J. Eldorado Riggs and Michael Rodgers and Mike Rud and Navtej Saini and Dan Scalisi and Dan Scharf and Kevin Schulz and Gene Serabyn and Norbert Sigrist and Glory Sikkia and Andrew Singleton and Stuart Shaklan and Scott Smith and Bart Southerd and Mark Stahl and John Steeves and Brian Sturges and Chris Sullivan and Hao Tang and Neil Taras and Jonathan Tesch and Melissa Therrell and Howard Tseng and Marty Valente and David Van Buren and Juan Villalvazo and Steve Warwick and David Webb and Thomas Westerhoff and Rush Wofford and Gordon Wu and Jahning Woo and Milana Wood and John Ziemer and Giada Arney and Jay Anderson and Jesús Maíz-Apellániz and James Bartlett and Ruslan Belikov and Eduardo Bendek and Brad Cenko and Ewan Douglas and Shannon Dulz and Chris Evans and Virginie Faramaz and Y. Katherina Feng and Harry Ferguson and Kate Follette and Saavik Ford and Miriam García and Marla Geha and Dawn Gelino and Ylva Götberg and Sergi Hildebrandt and Renyu Hu and Knud Jahnke and Grant Kennedy and Laura Kreidberg and Andrea Isella and Eric Lopez and Franck Marchis and Lucas Macri and Mark Marley and William Matzko and Johan Mazoyer and Stephan McCandliss and Tiffany Meshkat and Christoph Mordasini and Patrick Morris and Eric Nielsen and Patrick Newman and Erik Petigura and Marc Postman and Amy Reines and Aki Roberge and Ian Roederer and Garreth Ruane and Edouard Schwieterman and Dan Sirbu and Christopher Spalding and Harry Teplitz and Jason Tumlinson and Neal Turner and Jessica Werk and Aida Wofford and Mark Wyatt and Amber Young and Rob Zellem},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2001.06683},
year = {2020}
}
Comments
Full report: 498 pages. Executive Summary: 14 pages. More information about HabEx can be found here: https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/habex/