Pandora will not travel alone. Two small CubeSats, BlackCAT and SPARCS, will ride along. Together, the three missions represent a new approach by NASA to do high-impact science at a lower cost. Instead of one massive spacecraft, NASA is flying multiple compact missions that can answer big questions about the universe.
Pandora’s mission: reading alien atmospheres
Pandora will observe planets as they pass in front of their stars. When this happens, a tiny amount of starlight passes through the planet’s atmosphere before reaching the telescope. Different gases, such as water vapour or oxygen, absorb specific wavelengths of light. This leaves behind clear chemical fingerprints.
The challenge is that stars are not calm. Their surfaces have bright and dark patches that change over time and can mimic or hide the signals from a planet’s atmosphere. Pandora is designed to separate the star’s noise from the planet’s signal by observing both at the same time in visible and near-infrared light.
A year of close-up observations
During its first year in orbit, Pandora will study at least 20 known exoplanets and their host stars. Each target will be observed about 10 times. Every observation will last 24 hours to capture how the star and planet behave before, during, and after a transit.
This long-stare strategy is something larger telescopes like the James Webb Space Telescope cannot easily do because of tight scheduling. Pandora’s dedicated design allows scientists to track how stellar activity affects what they see in a planet’s atmosphere.
A new kind of space telescope
Pandora carries a 45-centimetre telescope made entirely of aluminium. It was built by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and Corning. The spacecraft also uses a near-infrared detector originally made for the James Webb Space Telescope.
After launch, Pandora will spend about a month being checked and calibrated in low Earth orbit. It will then begin its one-year prime mission. All the data it collects will be made public for scientists around the world.
CubeSats with big science goals
The two CubeSats that will be flying with Pandora will investigate various sections of the universe. BlackCAT will search the sky in search of strong X-ray bursts of cosmic bombardments like gamma-ray bursts. Such events are usually of the early universe, and they may disclose the way black holes and stars were formed.
The SPARCS will observe small, cool stars in the ultraviolet light. Such stars usually have very powerful flares which can impact other planets. Through this activity, SPARCS will enable the scientists to determine whether the surrounding planets around these stars might retain their atmospheres and potentially support life.
The first NASA Astrophysics Pioneers mission is Pandora. The project is orientated towards the accomplishment of advanced science using lesser and less expensive spacecraft. It also assists in training the new generation of space scientists as well as engineers.
Together, the combination of Pandora, BlackCAT and SPARCS illustrates that small missions can have a significant effect. NASA believes that combining the intensive study of the planets with strong observations of the stars and cosmic explosions will mark a significant advance in the quest for the habitable worlds beyond the earth.