The Pandora SmallSat is a NASA flight project designed to study the atmospheres of exoplanets. Transmission spectroscopy of transiting exoplanets provides our best opportunity to identify the makeup of planetary atmospheres in the coming decade, and is a key science driver for HST and JWST. Stellar photospheric inhomogeneity due to star spots, however, has been shown to contaminate the observed spectra in these high-precision measurements. Pandora will address the problem of stellar contamination by collecting long-duration photometric observations sampled over a stellar rotation period with a visible-light channel and simultaneous spectra with a near-IR channel. These simultaneous multiwavelength observations will constrain star spot covering fractions of exoplanet host stars, enabling star and planet signals to be disentangled in transmission spectra to then reliably determine exoplanet atmosphere compositions. Pandora will observe exoplanets with sizes ranging from Earthsize to Jupiter-size and host stars spanning mid-K to late-M spectral types. Pandora was selected in early 2021 as part of NASA’s inaugural Astrophysics Pioneers Program. Herein, we present an overview of the mission, including the science objectives, operations, the observatory, science planning, and upcoming milestones as we prepare for launch readiness in 2025.
Pandora is a low-cost space telescope designed to measure the composition of distant transiting planets. The Pandora observatory is designed with the capability of measuring precision photometry simultaneously with nearinfrared spectroscopy, enabling scientists to disentangle stellar activity from the subtle signature of a planetary atmosphere. The broad-wavelength coverage will provide constraints on the spot and faculae covering fractions of low-mass exoplanet host stars and the impact of these active regions on exoplanetary transmission spectra. Pandora will subsequently identify exoplanets with hydrogen- or water-dominated atmospheres, and robustly determine which planets are covered by clouds and hazes. Pandora observations will also contribute to the study of transit timing variations and phase curve photometry. With a launch readiness date of early-2025, the Pandora mission represents a new class of low-cost space missions that will achieve out-of-this-world science.
KEYWORDS: James Webb Space Telescope, Near infrared, Atmospheric modeling, Point spread functions, Stars, Planets, Exoplanets, Atmospheric sciences, Sensors, Spectroscopy, Modeling and simulation
Pandora is a SmallSat mission, designed to study the atmospheres of exoplanets using transmission spectroscopy and to investigate the impact that stellar contamination and variability has on observing the spectra of these worlds. Pandora’s initial science operation lifetime is one year, so optimizing the science return is critical. Here we present two tools created to assist in the design process. The first is a 2-D spectrum simulator being developed to help refine target selection, optimize observation strategies, and assist in the creation of a data reduction pipeline. The second is a pseudo-retrieval framework that provides a quantifiable method for comparing potential targets against a handful of exoplanetary atmospheric parameters important to the Pandora mission. Preliminary results show Pandora will place tighter constraints on atmospheric properties like water abundance compared to HST and answering its mission objectives will help to inform targets for missions like JWST.
KEYWORDS: Data archive systems, Stars, James Webb Space Telescope, Observatories, Databases, Exoplanets, Data modeling, Cameras, Space telescopes, Planets
The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) is an all-sky survey mission designed to discover exoplanets around the nearest and brightest stars. The Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes (MAST) at the Space Telescope Science Institute will serve as the archive for TESS science data. The services provided by MAST for the TESS mission are to store science data and provide an Archive User Interface for data documentation, search, and retrieval. The TESS mission takes advantage of MAST multi-mission architecture to provide a cost-effective archive that allows integration of TESS data with data from other missions.
Richard Shaw, Scott Fleming, Karen Levay, Randy Thompson, Anton Koekemoer, Shui-Ay Tseng, Peter Forshay, Jonathan Hargis, Brian McLean, Anthony Marston, Susan Mullally, J.E. Peek, Bernie Shiao, Richard White
KEYWORDS: Data archive systems, Data modeling, Space telescopes, James Webb Space Telescope, Astronomy, Observatories, Visualization, Machine learning, Process engineering
The Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopesb (MAST), a multi-mission archive that hosts science data products for several NASA missions, has since 2003 solicited collections of processed data, termed High-Level Science Products (HLSPs), from investigators with observing and archive science programs. As of early 2018 there were nearly 130 contributed collections, and the growth rate is expected to accelerate with the start of the TESSc and JWSTd missions. While the data volume of all HLSP collections is only about 1% of the total volume hosted by MAST, they have an outsized impact on science. The aggregate downloaded volume for a given HLSP collection is typically about 40 times the collection size, and the citation rates for HLSP collections are significantly higher than that for typical observing programs. Yet hosting HLSPs presents special challenges for long-term archives. It is often problematic to obtain sufficient metadata to specify fully the data products without requiring work from potential contributors that may discourage them from sharing their collections. Historically, preparing an HLSP collection for distribution via MAST has been quite time-consuming and often required substantial interaction with the collection contributors. We are creating a more automated workflow and using new technologies for HLSP collection management to improve collection discoverability, simplify the process for the investigator, ease the burden for MAST staff, and shorten the timeframe for publishing HLSPs. This work will also help MAST staff better assess the impact of HLSP collections on science outcomes for hosted mission data.
KEYWORDS: James Webb Space Telescope, Data archive systems, Calibration, Space telescopes, Hubble Space Telescope, Databases, Space operations, Human-machine interfaces, Data centers, Observatories
In this paper we present the envisaged setup and changes to the current Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes (MAST) configuration at the beginning of operations for the James Webb Space Telescope mission. The placing of the observatory at L2 and long periods of autonomous operations mean that observations can be split over several time periods or ‘visits’. Data are processed through standard science data reduction pipelines after arriving at the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI). We describe how data from visits and pipeline processing lead to the data products that are to be stored in the archives. Most observations will require a number of exposures; we discuss the data associations that will formulate the highest level of pipeline products that will be available in the MAST archive for JWST. The JWST observatory has numerous spectroscopic modes, including integral field units and multiple object spectra which will distinguish it from the Hubble Space Telescope archive. We describe the expected data products and services. Finally, we discuss the links to data analysis software and archive products available for user reprocessing.
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