Mission Design Challenge
Design a Next-Generation Exoplanet Observatory
Saved locally on this device
Learning goals
- Match instruments to the science goals of the challenge.
- Balance mass, power, cost, risk, and communication throughput.
- Explain your design tradeoffs in your own words.
Help & glossary
- Meters update in real time so you can see the impact of each choice.
- Errors are red; warnings are amber. You can still launch with warnings.
- Your written explanation stays on this device.
This is an educational mission-design simulation. Scores and simplified engineering values do not represent an approved or operational NASA mission.
1. Briefing2. Platform3. Power4. Comms5. Instruments6. Timeline7. Explanation8. Results
Mission briefing
Design a large space telescope tuned to find and characterize potentially habitable exoplanets around nearby stars. You must combine a starlight-suppression system, a stable observatory bus, and instruments that image and spectrally analyze faint planets next to bright stars.
- Destination
- Sun–Earth L2
- Mission type
- Space observatory
- Environment
- distant-sun, cold-night, radiation
Science goals
- Directly image exoplanets around nearby stars.
- Measure planetary spectra for atmospheric biosignatures.
- Deliver high-fidelity time-series photometry.
Sources
- Exoplanet Exploration — NASA — NASA · Accessed 2026-09-01
- Habitable Worlds Observatory concept — NASA — NASA · Accessed 2026-09-01