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Mission Design Challenge

Build a Space Telescope Mission

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 space telescope that observes galaxies and exoplanet systems from outside Earth's atmosphere. You must choose an observing wavelength, a large enough mirror, and a communications plan for gigabyte-scale data.

Destination
Earth–Sun Lagrange point (L2)
Mission type
Space observatory
Environment
distant-sun, cold-night, radiation

Science goals

  • Image distant galaxies.
  • Observe exoplanet host stars.
  • Return image data at high volume.

Sources