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EXO

Exoplanet Exploration Collaboration Initiative TP Final Report

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The cover shows the of an like passing in front of a like . When a planet transits its star in this way, it is possible to see through its thin layer of and measure its spectrum. The lines at the bottom of the page show the absorption spectrum of the Earth in front of the Sun, the signature of as we know it. Seeing our Earth as just one possibly habitable planet among many billions fundamentally changes the perception of our place among the .

"The 2014 Space Studies Program of the International Space University was hosted by the École de technologie supérieure (ÉTS) and the École des Hautes études commerciales (HEC), Montréal, Québec, ."

While all care has been taken in the preparation of this report, ISU does not take any responsibility for the accuracy of its content.

Electronic copies of the Final Report and the Executive Summary can be downloaded from the ISU Library website at http://isulibrary.isunet.edu/

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Unless otherwise credited, figures and images were created by TP Exoplanets.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The International Space University Summer Session Program 2014 and the work on the Team Project were made possible through the generous support of the following individuals and organizations:

Jacques Arnould (CNES) Charles Beichman (NASA Institute) Steve Brody (ISU) Jim Burke () René Doyon (Université de Montréal) James Green (NASA Headquarters) Johanne Heald () Christopher Johnson (Secure Foundation) Jan King (Canadensys Aerospace Corporation) Jaymie Matthews (University of British Columbia) Marie-Eve Naud (Université de Montréal) Hanno Rein (University of ) (MIT) Randall Sweet (Lockheed Martin) Harley Thronson (NASA) John Troeltzsch (Ball Aerospace) Marcell Tessenyi (University College London) Pete Worden (NASA )

Also, TP Exoplanets would not have been such a success without the support and guidance of the staff at ISU. In particular, we would like to thank:

Eric Choi, Team Project Chair Thomas Wilson, Teaching Associate

ISU editors Merryl Azriel Jaime Babb Carol Carnett Vanessa Stroh

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AUTHORS

The following participants have contributed to this project:

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ABSTRACT

The number of discovered extrasolar (exoplanets) has increased exponentially since the first confirmed discovery of such an object in the . These alien systems have since generated an unprecedented wave of scientific and public interest such that the exoplanetary research field became a top research priority among major international space agencies and a multitude of universities worldwide.

The International Space University (ISU) exoplanets team project was proposed with the following objectives:

 To engage the interests and capabilities of people throughout the international community;  To go beyond science, and address the social implications of current and upcoming discoveries; and  To document ways to increase the scientific yield of both space-based and ground based investigations of exoplanets through improved communications and collaboration among researchers worldwide;

With these objectives in mind, the interdisciplinary, international and, intercultural project team envisioned a two-fold solution:

1. Identifying the gaps and overlaps from the multiple interested parties in exoplanetary research and coordinating their activities; and 2. Designing of a demonstrative low cost exploration mission.

The proposed solution by the team members is to first create a notional international organization, EXO (Exoplanet eXploration Organization) that would manage and promote international communication, knowledge and, discoveries linked to exoplanetary research. Second, the UniQuE (United Quest for Exoplanets) mission would be implemented to demonstrate the capabilities of a low-cost microsatellite in the characterization of exoplanetary

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摘要

20世纪90年代证实首次发现太阳系外行星以来,发现的系外行星数量已经成倍增加。这些 太阳系外行星系吸引了科学界和公众前所未有的极大兴趣,使系外行星研究成为了一些主 要国际空间机构和世界众多院校的重点研究领域。 国际空间大学(ISU)的系外行星团队项目,提出了以下目标: ● 通过国际社团提升人们对系外行星研究的兴趣和参与系外行星研究的能力; ● 在科学研究的基础上,进一步提升系外行星科学研究的社会影响; ● 通过增强国际间科学交流与研究合作,利用文档记录方式进一步提高天基与地基系 外行星观测的科研效果。 考虑以上目标,作为一个秉承“跨学科,跨国家,跨文化”理念的项目团队提出了两步走的 解决方案设想:

1,从相关利益组织找出其从事系外行星研究和协调活动的差距和重叠领域; 2,设计一个低成本的示范探测任务。

针对上述解决方案,项目团队提出首先创建一个国际组织——EXO(太阳系外行星探索 组织),负责管理和促进国际上关于系外行星探索和研究知识、信息和发现的交流和合作 。然后,执行UniQuE任务(系外行星联合任务),证明使用低成本小卫星对系外行星大 气进行分类的能力,并产生EXO所有成员可共享的新数据。 结合ISU的理念,上述方案将丰富系外行星研究的新知识,为每个国家提出各种可能性, 并激励着每一个未来的梦想家。 Exoplanets Final Report Page v

FACULTY PREFACE

Humanity’s fascination with the notion of planets outside of our is intrinsically tied to our sense of place in the . A geocentric model of the Universe, commonly attributed to Ptolemy, was accepted for almost 1,400 years until it was superseded by the heliocentric model advocated by Copernicus. For many years, the assumption that other stars are surrounded by planetary systems was nothing more than a hypothesis based on the Copernican principle of humanity’s non-preferential position in the Universe. Today, a new Copernican revolution is underway. Since the first detections of exoplanets in the 1990s, orbiting the PSR B1257+12 and the star , the number of confirmed exoplanets now exceeds 1,800 with another 3,200 candidates awaiting verification as of this writing. From 9 June to 8 August 2014, twenty-eight participants representing a dozen nations gathered in Montréal, Canada for the 2014 Space Studies Program (SSP) of the International Space University (ISU) and undertook a team project to advance the field of exoplanet study. The objectives of the project were to come up with innovative and practical ideas that could influence the future direction of international exoplanetary research, and to have a positive educational experience in learning about teamwork in a multicultural and multidisciplinary environment. We are proud to say that the team successfully achieved both objectives. Within the pages of this final report is described EXO, the Exoplanet eXploration Organization. This notional international body would provide a framework for an intercultural, international and interdisciplinary collaboration on exoplanetary research, education and outreach. It would coordinate the efforts of multiple agencies and organizations, with a particular emphasis on emerging spacefaring nations and other entities hitherto excluded from exoplanetary research. A potential centerpiece of the notional EXO would be the development of UniQuE (United Quest for Exoplanets), an innovative microsatellite mission concept that would characterize the of confirmed exoplanets. In the first week of the project, the team came up with an internal code of conduct in which the prime directive was “be excellent to one another”. Despite disappointments and obstacles, the team stuck to their project plan over many long hours, systematically meeting the challenges and solving the problems with dedication and a positive attitude to produce the final report you are now reading. If applause, high- fives and laughter could power a starship, we would already be on our way to -186f. For much of human history, the planets of our own Solar System were only points in the night sky. Today, we know them to be . So it will be with exoplanets, perhaps with the help of an EXO-like organization or maybe a mission inspired by UniQuE. When that happens, the twenty-eight talented international authors of this report should take satisfaction in the knowledge that they have made a contribution to this grand endeavor.

Eric Choi Thomas Wilson Team Project Chair Teaching Associate Exoplanets Final Report Page vi

AUTHORS PREFACE

There have been few ideas throughout history that have captured human imagination as much as the secrets that distant planets orbiting other stars may hold. Do they support life? Are there new discoveries that could revolutionize the path of the human race? Will humanity ever visit an extrasolar planet? These questions have been explored through science fiction; however, we are now starting to find the answers through scientific research. The field of exoplanets is growing and continues to capture the public interest, so this year the International Space University has chosen to approach this field in one of the Space Studies Program’s team projects.

We have taken the field of exoplanets and explored it thoroughly to determine what we believe are the next steps that should be taken to make the search for, classification of, and verification of exoplanets a demonstration of what can be achieved through international collaboration. From proposing a notional global organization and a mission to addressing the current gaps in the research, we have provided a framework for future international collaboration in the exoplanet scientific community, both professional and amateur.

This team project has brought together people from a variety of nations, cultures, and disciplines in order to thoroughly examine what can be done to progress the field of exoplanetary research from a diverse collection of perspectives. Although views and opinions sometimes differed during the project, the two aspects that united us were a passion for exoplanets and a true desire to propose something that could unify people around the world to achieve something truly amazing.

We have been very lucky to have Eric Choi as our chair and Thomas Wilson as our teaching associate for this project. Along with our knowledgeable visiting experts and the ISU’s editing team, we have produced what we are confident will be the first step in setting up future collaborations in exoplanetary research. We believe that the proposals presented in this report and the recommendations that we have produced will be valuable to those who may take the ideas and concepts raised in this document to their logical conclusion.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS SECTION PAGE NO. 1. INTRODUCTION...... 1 2. CONTEXT ...... 3 2.1 JUSTIFICATION ...... 3 2.1.1 Historical Context ...... 3 2.1.2 Scientific Rationales...... 4 2.1.3 Socioeconomic Benefits ...... 5 2.1.4 Cultural and Theological Considerations ...... 6 2.2 CURRENT EXOPLANETARY RESEARCH ...... 7 2.2.1 Exoplanet Detection Methods ...... 7 2.2.2 Diversity of Exoplanets ...... 11 2.2.3 Current Exoplanet Missions ...... 11 2.2.4 Current Exoplanet Databases ...... 14 2.3 FUTURE EXOPLANETARY RESEARCH ...... 15 2.4 IDENTIFIED GAPS AND OVERLAPS IN EXOPLANETARY RESEARCH ...... 20 2.4.1 Exoplanetary Research and Missions ...... 20 2.4.2 Exoplanet Organizations ...... 21 2.4.3 Databases and Data Products ...... 22 2.4.4 Outreach ...... 22 3. SCOPE OF THE TEAM PROJECT...... 24 3.1 MISSION STATEMENT ...... 24 3.2 PROJECT AIMS AND OBJECTIVES ...... 24 3.2.1 Aims...... 25 3.2.2 Objectives ...... 25 3.3 RATIONALE ...... 25 4. EXO - EXOPLANETS EXPLORATION ORGANIZATION ...... 28 4.1 ORGANIZATION DEFINITION AND DESIGN ...... 28 4.1.1 Rationale for EXO...... 28 4.1.2 Overview of Current Situation ...... 28 4.1.3 Organization Research ...... 30 4.1.4 EXO Objectives and Scope ...... 30 4.1.5 Organizational Structure, Membership, and Sharing of Information ...... 31 4.1.6 Membership...... 32 4.1.7 Information Sharing ...... 32 4.2 FINANCIAL PLAN...... 32 4.2.1 Economic Rationale ...... 32 4.2.2 Strategic Partnerships ...... 33 4.2.3 Financial Plan ...... 33 4.2.4 Roadmap of Organizational Development...... 35 4.3 ORGANIZATION CAPABILITIES ...... 36 4.3.1 Development of Ideas ...... 36 4.3.2 Resource Use ...... 36 4.3.3 Attract Political and Financial Support ...... 36 Exoplanets Final Report Page viii

4.3.4 Data Sharing ...... 36 4.3.5 Outreach and Education ...... 36 4.4 ORGANIZATION LINK WITH A RESEARCH MISSION ...... 37 4.4.1 Mission Proposal and Selection...... 38 4.4.2 Feasibility Analysis and Evaluation ...... 38 4.4.3 Policy & Budget Consultation ...... 38 4.4.4 Execution and Operation ...... 39 4.4.5 Data Management & Analysis ...... 39 4.5 INTERNATIONAL COLLABORATION ...... 40 4.5.1 Scope of Political and Legal Entity - Terms of Reference for EXO...... 40 4.5.2 Compliance and Legal Instruments ...... 40 4.5.3 Economic Consideration ...... 43 4.6 DATA HANDLING AND DATA POLICY ...... 43 4.6.1 Existing Exoplanet Data and “The Extended Extrasolar Planets Encyclopedia” ....44 4.6.2 Database Interfaces ...... 47 4.6.3 Legal Implication Related to Rreating the Extended Extrasolar Planets Encyclopedia ...... 48 4.6.4 The UniQuE Data - Data Policy ...... 48 4.6.5 Other Data - Technical Data and Intellectual Property ...... 49 4.7 OUTREACH AND EDUCATION ...... 49 4.7.1 Introduction...... 49 4.7.2 General public ...... 49 4.7.3 Schools and Educators ...... 50 4.7.4 Amateur ...... 52 5. PROPOSED EXOPLANET MISSION...... 54 5.1 MISSION RATIONALE ...... 54 5.1.1 Science Rationale ...... 54 5.1.2 International Collaboration Rationale ...... 54 5.1.3 Engineering Rationale ...... 55 5.2 MISSION REQUIREMENTS ...... 55 5.2.1 Scientific Requirements ...... 55 5.2.2 Mission Theory...... 56 5.2.3 Mission Requirements ...... 57 5.3 THE UNIQUE MISSION CONCEPT ...... 59 5.3.1 The UniQuE Mission Statement ...... 59 5.3.2 Concept of Operations ...... 59 5.3.3 Target Determination and Resource Allocation ...... 60 5.4 THE UNIQUE MISSION DESIGN ...... 61 5.4.1 Design ...... 61 5.4.2 Payload Design ...... 61 5.4.3 UniQuE Constellation and ...... 63 5.4.4 Satellite Bus Design ...... 64 5.4.5 Launch Selection ...... 67 5.4.6 Ground Stations ...... 67 5.4.7 Preliminary Mission Budgets ...... 68 5.4.8 Mission Definition ...... 68 Exoplanets Final Report Page ix

5.5 MISSION FEASIBILITY ...... 69 5.5.1 Technical Feasibility ...... 69 5.5.2 Economic Feasibility ...... 69 5.5.3 Legal Feasibility ...... 69 5.5.4 Operational Feasibility ...... 70 5.5.5 Scheduling ...... 70 5.5.6 Scientific Feasibility...... 70 5.5.7 Is the Mission Feasible with a Microsatellite ...... 71 5.5.8 International Collaboration ...... 71 5.6 MISSION RISKS ...... 72 5.6.1 Risk Management ...... 72 5.6.2 Risk Identification and Assessment ...... 73 5.6.3 Risk Mitigation ...... 74 5.7 MISSION COSTS ANALYSIS FOR UNIQUE ...... 75 5.7.1 Reference Design Development ...... 75 5.7.2 Cost Model Discussion ...... 75 5.7.3 Background on Costing Model ...... 75 5.7.4 UniQuE Mission ROM Cost Estimate...... 76 5.7.5 Cost Reduction Methodologies ...... 77 6. CONCLUSION ...... 78 6.1 SUMMARIZATION OF TP GOALS ...... 78 6.2 TP ACCOMPLISHMENTS ...... 78 6.2.1 Organization Summary ...... 78 6.2.2 Mission Summary ...... 79 6.2.3 TP Process ...... 80 6.3 PATH FORWARD ...... 80 6.3.1 Report utilization/Future activities ...... 80 6.3.2 Limitations ...... 80 6.4 KEY FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS ...... 81 7. DOCUMENTS...... 82 7.1 FIGURE CITATIONS ...... 82 7.2 REFERENCES ...... 83 APPENDIX A: TERMS OF REFERENCE FOR EXO ...... 1 APPENDIX B: POWER ESTIMATION FOR SMALL SATELLITE ...... 5

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LIST OF FIGURES FIGURE PAGE NO. Figure 1: Exoplanet Discoveries 5 Figure 2: 5 Figure 3: Exoplanet Transit 7 Figure 4: Exoplanet Transit Data 7 Figure 5: Astrometric Movement of the Sun 8 Figure 6: Doppler Shift 8 Figure 7: Astrometric Motion of a Star 9 Figure 8: Direct Image of Planet b 9 Figure 9: Gravitational Microlensing 10 Figure 10: TESS Concept Art 15 Figure 11: JWST Concept Art 15 Figure 12: WFIRST Concept Art 16 Figure 13: Cheops Concept Art 16 Figure 14: Conception of the ExoPlanetSat prototype showing cross (a) and table (b) 17 Figure 15: Past and Future Missions 19 Figure 16: Exoplanet Exploration: A Decade Horizon 21 Figure 17: Number of potential exoplanets detected per year using specified techniques 26 Figure 18: Organizational Structure 31 Figure 19: EXO Growth Timeline 35 Figure 20: Mission process link with organization 37 Figure 21: Google Trend analysis for “exoplanet(s)” and “Super Earth” search requests since 2004. Letters indicate correlating media coverage of the topic. 50 Figure 22: Concept of Operations 60 Figure 23: Proposed design of the UniQuE spacecraft based on a 12 unit structure 61 Figure 24: The proposed photometric sensor for for use on-board the UniQuE spacecraft 62 Figure 25: Layout of the optical path inside the Hamamatsu C11118GA spectrometer 62 Figure 26: Terrestrial example of the Hamamatsu C11118GA spectrometer 63 Figure 27: Baseline UniQuE Orbit Ground track simulation 64 Figure 28: Data Flow between Spacecraft Subsystem and the Ground 65 Figure 29: Potential candidate launch vehicles for UniQuE spacecraft include PSLV (left), (middle) or -Fregat (right) 67 Figure 30: Continuous Risk Management Principles (NASA, 2007) 72

LIST OF TABLES TABLES PAGE NO. Table 1: 8-Year Projected Expenses 34 Table 2: 8-Year Projected Income 33 Table 3: Bioindicators in the Earth’s atmosphere and their associated absorption bands in the visible and electromagnetic (EM) sprectra (Rothman, et al., 2009) 56 Table 4: Technical specification of IR (payload) for the mission requirement based on analysis and Table 6.2 of (Schmid & Todorov, 2014) 57 Table 5: Engineering requirements of mission operation 58 Table 6: Mission Budget Summary 68 Table 8: Risk Matrix with RI Values, Identified Risk 73 Table 9: Identified Risks Description 73 Table 10: Risk Mitigation Strategy 74 Table 11: Comparative Satellite Costing 76 Table 7: Power estimations for a small satellite (Reeves, 2005) 5

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LIST OF ACRONYMS

3i Interdisciplinary, Intercultural and, International ACS Attitude Control System ADC Attitude Determination and Control ADS Data Systems AM Astrometric Motion AMOOS Autonomous Mission for On-Orbit Servicing APP Satellite Applications AU AXA Amateur Exoplanet Archive BRITE BRIght-star Target Explorer Caltech Institute of Technology CCD Charged Couple Device CEOS Committee on Earth Observation CHEOPS CHaracterizing ExOPlanet Satellite CONOPS Concept of Operations COSPAR Committee On COTS Commercial Off-The-Shelf CMOS Complementary Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor CRM Continuous Risk Management CSA Canadian Space Agency CSSWE Student Space Experiment EA Exoplanet Archive EChO Exoplanet Characterization Observatory E-ELT European Extremely Large Telescope ENG Engineering EOD Exoplanet Orbit Database EEPE Extended Extrasolar Planets Encyclopedia EPE Extrasolar Planets Encyclopedia EPR-AT ExoPlanet Roadmap Advisory Team ESA ETD Exoplanet Transit Database ExEP Exoplanet Exploration Program EXO Exoplanet eXploration Organization ExoPTF ExoPlanet Task Force FC Fully Compliant FMC Finance Management Committee FPGA Field-Programmable Gate Array GEO GNSS Global Navigation Satellite System HPS Human Performance in Space HRES High Resolution Echelle Spectrometer Exoplanets Final Report Page xii

HUM Humanities IADC Inter-Agency Coordination Committee IAU International Astronomical Union IEC Independent Evaluation Committee ILWS International program IP Intellectual Property IPAC Infrered Processing and Analysis Center IR InfraRed ISU International Space University ITAR International Traffic in Arms Regulation ITU International Telecommunication Union IUCAA Inter University Centre for and Astrophysics JAXA Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency JPL Jet Propulsion Laboratory JWST James Webb LEGO Leg Godt (Danish for play well) Low Earth Orbit MEO Middle Earth Orbit MGB Management and Business MIT Massachusetts Institute of Technology MOST Microvariability and Oscillation of STars NASA National Aeronautics and Space Administration NC Not Compliant NExScI NASA Exoplanet Science Institute NIRCam Near Infrered Cam NIRISS Near Infrared Imager and Slitless Spectrograph ODC Orbit Determination and Control OSCAAR Open Source differential Code for Accelerating Amateur Research OST Treaty PAT Pulsar And Transit time PC Partially Compliant PEC Program Execution Committee PEL Policy, Economy and Law PGC Policy Guidance Committee PHASES Planet Hunting and Explorer Spectrophotometer PLATO PLAnetary Transits and Oscillations PP Public Platform P-POD Poly-Picosatellite Orbital Deployed PSLV Polar Satellite RI Risk Index RV SCI Space Science SDRAM Synchronous Dynamic Random-Access Memory Exoplanets Final Report Page xiii

SME Subject Matter Expert SNR Signal to Noise Ratio SPICA Space Infrared Telescope for and Astrophysics SSP Space Studies Program SSP14 Space Studies Program 2014 STC Science and Technology Committee STEM Science, Technology, Engineering and, STRAND Surrey Training, Reaserch And, Nanosatellite Demonstrator TA Teaching Associate TESS Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite TDRS Tracking and Data Relay Satellite TLA Three Letter Acronym TOC Table Of Content TOR Terms Of Reference TP Team Project TRESCA Transiting ExoplanetS and Candidates UHF Ultra High Frequency UK United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland UN United Nations UniQuE Unified Quest for Exoplanets USA of America WBS Work Breakdown Structure WFIRST Wide-Field Infrared Survey Telescope WP Work Package WYE Work Year Equivalent

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1. INTRODUCTION

From the first humanoid handprints in prehistoric caves to the Hubble Ultra Deep Field, representations of reality have been the basis of cultures, beliefs, knowledge, and consequently, futures and destinies. Our comprehension of reality has evolved over the ages, resulting in a succession of different scientific models. From philosophical conceptions of our world to faith-based depictions, each one of these models has served as the contemporary representation of truth and, therefore, the basis of human existence at one time or another. New scientific discoveries have been relegating each previous model to history and promoting better, more comprehensive, models.

From the flat Earth, to the geocentric Universe, to the advent of , each one of these models has attributed a specific position to our species in the Universe. From ancient Greek philosophers, such as Ptolemy, to the present day, thinkers have looked at the stars and wondered at the possibility that other worlds similar to our own may exist somewhere out there. Only in the last few decades have the tools become available to us that now we can finally start to answer these questions.

This relative position of our species must now be reevaluated once more, as extrasolar planets (exoplanets) have been discovered orbiting distant stars, confirming speculations as old as human writing about the existence of other worlds. As of the writing of this report, 5,017 exoplanet candidates have been discovered and 1,811 have been confirmed as exoplanets (PlanetHunters, 2014). Exoplanets are observed using many methods, primarily: transit, radial velocity, direct observation, and gravitational microlensing. Observation methods will be further described in Section 2.2. These new discoveries have not only proven that our solar system is not unique in the Universe, but have started changing our current model how our solar system formed.

Our species has been relying on scientific models for our comprehension and development needs but as noted by George E. P. Box: “essentially, all models are wrong, some are useful” (Box, 1987). This new field of scientific research will one day produce disruptive discoveries that will affect humankind both socially and scientifically, as previously occurred with our species’ first steps on the . The time scale on which this will happen could be decades, however, the changes will ripple throughout the science world.

The ISU Space Studies Program 2014 (SSP14) has assigned one of its Team Projects (TP) to work on this new field of scientific knowledge and to contribute its renowned interdisciplinary, intercultural, and international (3i) approach to the field of exoplanetary research.

The main objectives of the Exoplanet TP are:  To engage the interests and capabilities of people throughout the international community;  To go beyond science, and address the social implications of current and upcoming discoveries; and  To document ways to increase the scientific yield of both space-based and ground-based investigations of exoplanets through improved communications and collaboration among researchers worldwide.

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To achieve these objectives the TP exoplanets recommends two main actions. First, we propose the creation of an organization that will provide a framework for a 3i collaboration on exoplanetary research, education, and outreach. The organization shall be called EXO; aims to unite the global exoplanet community through helping coordinate research efforts and resources. EXO will bring together organizations, institutions, and amateurs around the world in the pursuit of exoplanet science. EXO will also strengthen the public’s interest and engagement in via education and outreach. The EXO will be described in detail in Section 4.1.

The initial mission of EXO, United Quest for Exoplanets (UniQuE), embodies the organizations aims and will be a collaborative effort among participating institutes from around the world. Together they will design, manufacture and operate a constellation of small spacecraft which are capable of characterizing the atmospheres of confirmed exoplanets. UniQuE will operate an open policy where all who wish to contribute will be able to; this is particularly aimed at those who originate from emerging space faring nations. Through the sharing of knowledge, resources, and experience the UniQuE mission will help to advance the field by filling in a gap not currently achievable by the main space agencies. The UniQuE mission will be detailed in Section 5.0.

Both aspects of the TP, organization and mission, are designed to start operating with minimal resources and as the interest and contributions grow, so will the scope of their operations. ISU 3i TP Exoplanets team will propose a framework for both contributing to the compendium of knowledge through a mission that is complementary to those previously launched, and an organization that will benefit future societies through becoming a platform for international collaboration.

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2. CONTEXT

Research in the field of exoplanets is critical to our comprehension of the universe and the origins of life. The present model of the creation of our solar system has developed through the research of these extra- solar systems. Sparked by cultural rationales such as philosophy and theology, and fueled by the technological advancements of the 21st century, the search for a world outside our own has evolved from a concept of imagination to one of reality. Exoplanetary research is helping us to better understand our models, and comprehension of our local star, the Sun. As the field grows, the potential outcomes of increased exoplanet knowledge become very exciting. The discovery of a habitable world outside of our solar system could act as a spark for humanity to view itself as a unified group, focused on technological and scientific growth, understanding our place in the universe, and possible long-term survival of the species.

In the following chapter we will discuss the historical significance of exoplanets, current and future exoplanet missions, as well as the gaps and overlaps in the field.

2.1 JUSTIFICATION

2.1.1 Historical Context The existence of other worlds is a deep-seated human belief that has been present in human culture since antiquity. Extrasolar planets were first theorized around 500 BC by the Greeks. Epicurus wrote about his ideas in a letter to Herodotus, in which he said “...an infinite number worlds both like and unlike this world of ours. For the atoms being infinite in number … and borne far out into space. For those atoms … have not been used up either on one world or on a limited number of worlds, nor on all the worlds which are alike, or on those which are different from these. So that nowhere exists an obstacle to the infinite number of worlds.” (Conche, 1987; Crowe, 1986; Dick, 1982). These ideas however were not based on direct evidence, but rather on philosophical musings about the of atomic structure.

Debates continued to rage over the centuries among philosophers, , and theologians about the existence of other worlds and the nature of the universe, notable historical figures such as Plato and Aristotle even weighing in (Crowe, 1986; Dick, 1982). Belief in the existence of other worlds grew despite this, and reached a turning point in the , with modern technology allowing greater understanding of our local solar system and beyond (Dick, 1982). It was this shift in technology and social mindset that finally enabled the search for exoplanets to begin in earnest.

The first exoplanet candidate was announced in 1992 (Wolszczan, 1992) with the discovery of three celestial bodies orbiting a pulsar; this was later confirmed in 1994 (Wolszczan, 1994). In 1995, the first exoplanet orbiting a main sequence star was announced by Mayor and Queloz (Mayor, 1995). Since then, the number of confirmed exoplanets has increased exponentially.

Today there are almost 2,000 known exoplanets (1811 as of July 25th 2014; this number is continuously growing, with a host of exoplanet candidates waiting to be confirmed (Schneider, 2011). The Kepler data details around 18,000 potential transiting planets with an estimated 98.3% confirmation rate (Harrington, 2013; Tenenbaum, et al., 2013).

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2.1.2 Scientific Rationales The NASA Astrophysics roadmap presents a science-driven 30-year vision for the future of NASA (NASA, 2013), which builds on remarkable discoveries to address three defining questions: 1. Are we alone? 2. How did we get here? 3. How does the universe work?

The attempt to answer these age-old questions has pushed mankind to explore, innovate, and develop new technologies to understand its place in the universe. The search for exoplanets helps mankind to address these fundamental questions.

At the onset of the search for extrasolar planets, the focus was on finding Earth-like planets, similar to our own and could support life. Earth-sized planets are difficult to detect and until recently, with discoveries from the , only a handful had been found (NASA, 2013). The majority of discovered exoplanets fall within the “Hot ” category. These are gas giants with close to their parent stars - between approximately 0.015 and 0.5 Astronomical Units (AU) and up to approximately 13 Jupiter . The next step in the search for life is to characterize the atmospheres of exoplanets searching for bioindicators. Detecting bioindicators, such as (O2) and (O3), could signify the presence of photosynthetic processes, while the presence of (N2O) could signify denitrifying bacteria, and detecting Chloromethane (CH3Cl) could signify vegetation. (John Lee Grenfell, 2011)

The search for exoplanets allows scientists to answer questions of how the universe began and the origins of life. Initially, scientists believed that solar systems would form in a way similar to ours; that is, with smaller rocky planets in proximity to the host star and larger gaseous planets farther away. The discovery of exoplanets like HD189733b and GU Piscium b has forced scientists to overhaul their models for the composition and formation of planetary systems. These two solar systems are very unlike our own; HD189733b is a with mass of 1.13 and orbits its star in two days, while GU Piscium b is a giant exoplanet with mass ~ 9 to 13 Jupiter, orbiting its host star at a distance of ~2000 AU (Naud, 2014). Originally considered to be an obstacle to finding fainter Earth-like worlds, hot are now attracting attention as they allow us to better understand the formation of our own solar system and how life can have originated (Phillips, 2013). The study of extra solar planets allows scientists to improve solar system models, and generate new theories.

The Exoplanet Roadmap, produced by ESA, identified three main scientific areas to be covered in exoplanetary research (ESA, 2010): 1. The detection of exoplanets 2. The characterization of their internal structure 3. The characterization of their atmospheres including bioindicators

The ESA roadmap is consistent with the approach used by NASA in their Astrophysics roadmap (NASA, 2013). Both roadmaps identify short-, mid-, and long-term objectives for exoplanetary research to reach ultimate goal of finding the answers to the three fundamental questions described above. The roadmaps not only identify the scientific goals, but also detail the technology development required to achieve these goals.

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The interest in Exoplanets has been increasing in the past two decades. Two reasons for this are:

1. The discovery and confirmation of the first exoplanet in 1992 (as we will see later on in this document). This actually confirmed what we had previously only suspected.

2. An increase of exoplanets discovered by the Kepler telescope of nearly 400% as depicted in Figure 1. This confirms that, not only do exoplanets exist, but also they are common.

Figure 1: Exoplanet Discoveries

Exoplanetary research is a rapidly rising field among space agencies, astronomers, educational institutions, and the general public. While this field is still in its early days, TP Exoplanets has the to contribute and add to the momentum in order to reach previously untargeted audiences.

“How many exoplanets are there? How many are Earth like? How many can harbor life? Do these new worlds exceed our imagination? Might we find ways to improve humanity’s quality of life through this endeavor?” These are but a few of the questions that drive us into this quest for discovery and exploration.

2.1.3 Socioeconomic Benefits If we look at some of the socioeconomic benefits that space research has given us, we can see how it has been an avenue for the gradual unification of humanity by increasing our communication, connectedness, and self- awareness through awe-inspiring images such as ‘The Day the Earth Smiled’, shown in Figure 2.

Spaceflight and has resulted in many socioeconomic benefits that have improved the quality of life on Earth, in particular with respect to spin-off technologies. These spin-offs stimulate industry and promote economic development, as well as advance technology as a whole. There are numerous spin-offs that are catalogued by many space agencies. Consulting the NASA databases alone, dating as far back as 1976, we can observe around 1,000 spin-off contributions that have been generated by space activities (NASA, 2013). Figure 2: The Day the Earth Smiled Exoplanets Final Report Page 6

Some notable by-products of the include:  Infrared Thermometer (Ames Research Center, 2014)  X-Ray Imaging Systems (Ames Research Center, 2014)  Search and Rescue Beacon (ISRO, 2009)  Monitoring camera for ground use (JAXA, 2009)  Detection Software for Amateur Astronomers (JAXA, 2009)  Pneumatic emulsification desulphurization and dust removal technology (CNSA, 2013)  Ultrasonic measurement technology for tunnel drilling (ESA, 2012)

Adding on the technical value that spin-offs give to ground-based industry, it is also important to point out their economic benefits. Looking at the various studies conducted throughout the past four decades, there is a clear return on investment that governments gain from expenditures in space. Among them, Midwest Research Institute (MRI) study for NASA 1988 denoted a return on investment of nine times from initial expenditures. This brings about an important question: Why wouldn’t we want to invest in space? (Midwest Research Inst, 1988) Looking forward, roadmaps from NASA and ESA provide a pathway for propelling further developments in science, communication, and exoplanet discovery, which will undoubtedly provide more opportunities for socioeconomic benefit.

2.1.4 Cultural and Theological Considerations Questions pertaining to other worlds and alien life go back thousands of years to the time of the ancient atomists Democritus, Epicurus, and Lucretius. Since then, humans have been continually pondering the question “Is anybody out there?” We are now quickly approaching a technological area where we can start to answer these questions. (Wiker, 2002; Berryman, 2005; Hilbich, 2014) When discussing “big picture” issues pertaining to profound concepts such as exoplanets and the possibility of , it is understandable that cultural and theological aspects should be considered. For example, the mainstream Christian faith has not made formal pronouncements for, or against, the existence of alien life, although recently, personal statements have been made by significant figures in the Vatican. Reverend George Coyne, director of the Vatican Astronomic Observatory, has been quoted as saying that the possibility of extraterrestrials is an "exciting prospect, which must be treated with caution.... The universe is so large that it would be folly to say that we are the exception." Rev. Christopher Corbally, S.J., another at the Vatican Observatory, believes that if we discover extraterrestrials, it will entail an expansion of our theology, for "while Christ is the First and the Last Word (the Alpha and the Omega) spoken to humanity, he is not necessarily the only word spoken to the whole universe." Statements such as these provide a glimpse into the changing landscape of culture and religion, showing that the classical theological views are adapting to a changing contemporary model of the universe. (Wiker, 2002) As another example, the mainstream Islamic faith has also not made formal pronouncements or doctrines advocating for or against extraterrestrial life. It is one of the few religions that speaks of other worlds and other beings in the text of the Quran, as well as making claims to humans contacting extraterrestrials. (Ali, 2013; Woerlee, 2009; Shawaiz, 2010) Exoplanets Final Report Page 7

2.2 CURRENT EXOPLANETARY RESEARCH

2.2.1 Exoplanet Detection Methods Exoplanets are primarily found using space-based but can also be observed using ground-based methods (de Mooij, 2009; Sing, 2009). There are four main methods of detecting exoplanets, as well as a few less frequently used methods. They are as follows: a) Transits Transits occur when an exoplanet passes in front of its host star along the same plane as the observer. This causes a miniscule, but measurable, dip in the total level over a short period as seen from Earth (Haswell, 2010) Figure 3 shows this reduction of light levels as the planet transits in front of the host star. The reduction in light levels from the star will depend upon the relative size of the exoplanet and the host star. Figure 4 is the raw data from four planetary transits, showing the average normal measured light and the dip suspected of being a planetary transit (Hidas, et al., 2005). There are significant benefits to using the transit Figure 3: Exoplanet Transit method for exoplanet detection. It is especially useful for finding smaller exoplanets as a smaller planet will not perturb the host star’s orbit sufficiently to be detectable by current radial velocity methods, or be visible enough to be detected with direct imaging. Importantly, change in light over time seen during a transit provides information about orbital parameters, transit duration, and ratio between the radius of the transiting planet and the star. This information, along with estimated size and mass of the planet from radial velocity and methods, can be used to estimate the mean of the planet (Schmid, 2014).

Additionally, transits are the method used for the characterization of atmospheric composition of exoplanets. As the planet with its star, observational instruments receive radiance fluctuation measurements (Madhusudhan, 2009). Prior knowledge of planetary sciences and spectroscopic signatures are used to inversely calculate emissivity and atmospheric composition of the planet (Madhusudhan, 2009; Swain, 2008).

There are two main drawbacks to this detection method. The first being the orbital plane of the exoplanet has to be aligned with the observer for a transit to be observed (Deeg, 1998; Hale, 1994; Haswell, 2010). The second problem is the high rate of false detections. This is due to the fact that stellar output is quite variable, with disturbances such as solar flares and sun spots leading to increased and decreased total light levels. Radial velocity follow-ups (see the next section) are essential for confirming the transit (Haswell, 2010).

The transit method has been the principal source of exoplanet discoveries, with Kepler alone discovering a host of new planets in 2014, taking the total number to about 1,150 Figure 4: Exoplanet Transit Data (Schneider, 2011). Exoplanets Final Report Page 8

b) Radial Velocity / Astrometry In a solar system, the star is not always the center of . The center of gravity within a solar system can be shifted by the presence of other celestial bodies in the system, such as , , planets, or other stars. In this case, the star will orbit the system’s center of gravity, producing a detectable wobble in the starlight seen on Earth. Figure 5 shows an example of this, depicting the gravitational effect Jupiter has on the Sun, as it would be seen from 33 light years away (Rodriguez, 2014).The starlight can be measured in two different ways depending on the of the stellar system when seen from Earth. If a star orbits on the same plane relative to an observer from Earth, then radial velocity (or ) can be employed. If the star’s orbital inclination is perpendicular relative to Earth, then astrometry is more Figure 5: Astrometric Movement of the Sun applicable.

Radial velocity can detect the effects of, and thus the presence of, an exoplanet through the movement of a star. If a planet is present, its gravity will change the system’s center of gravity. It will no longer be in the middle of the sun, causing the star to move (Mayor, 1995; Struve, 1952). This movement is measured as a shift in the spectrum of the star. As the star moves away from the observer in its orbit, its spectra will shift further towards the red end of the electromagnetic spectrum, known as . When the stars orbit brings it back towards the observer, the spectrum shifts back to the blue end of the spectrum, called .

This phenomenon occurs because the wavelength the incoming light is changed; redshifted light indicates longer wavelengths, while blueshifted light indicates shorter wavelengths (Struve, 1952). Figure 6 demonstrates the change in wavelength as the star moves. This method will preferentially find large planets orbiting close to the star, since their mass and will affect the host star more strongly (Cumming, 2004; Jones, et al., 2003).Finding planets through radial velocity is the second most successful method, accounting for roughly 25% of current discoveries (Schneider, 2011).

Alternatively, the method of astrometry has been in use long before the existence of exoplanets was known. Slight movements in stars have been noted down for centuries, and this was originally seen as denoting binary systems (Lippincott, 1978). Thomas See described an astrometric observation as “an unseen companion” orbiting the observed star, causing the orbital Figure 6: Doppler Shift perturbations (See, 1896).

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The first confirmed exoplanet found using astrometry came in 1996 through observational measurements of the movement of the star (Gatewood, 1974; Gatewood, 1996; Lippincott, 1960). Astrometry measures the up and down motion of stars as they cross the night sky, with the degree and regularity of movement providing into the size and number of planets orbiting the star.

Figure 7 depicts the observed motion of a star as it traverses the night sky. Measurement of such motion can be done through high precision astrometric (Launhardt, 2009). This method can easily estimate mass of a planet which has already been identified through radial velocity.

This method has drawbacks however. Figure 7: Astrometric Motion of a Star There is a significant bias towards Hot Jupiters, as their high mass and small orbital period causes perturbations in the star’s orbit as well more rapid undulations (Carter, et al., 2003; Vogt, et al., 2000). Additionally, astrometry requires a long observation time and very precise instruments to detect the wobble of a star. c) Direct Imaging / Coronagraphy Direct imaging uses optical and infrared telescopes to identify exoplanets by directly viewing their reflected or radiated light. Figure 8 is a direct image of the planet , as seen by the . Using direct imaging, orbits can be very accurately plotted (Haswell, 2010). This method, however, is limited in what it can detect due to the fact that majority of exoplanets have extremely low luminosity compared to the host star (Marois, et al., 2008). Even a relatively close to a sun-like star will be drowned out in the star’s light by several orders of magnitude (Oppenheimer, 2003; Woolf, 1998). The planet’s mass cannot be obtained with this method, and sightings require multiple follow- ups on different wavelengths in order ensure the object is a planet and not another object like a star. To compensate for light exposure interference, have been Figure 8: Direct Image of Planet Fomalhaut b used to block out the light coming directly from the star allowing the observer to see its immediate surroundings (Haswell, 2010).

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d) Gravitational Microlensing Gravitational microlensing works because of the way a gravitational field bends light rays. When a star passes directly in front of the object being observed, its gravity will bend the incoming light, focusing, magnifying and brightening the light for the observer (Bond, et al., 2004). If the lens star (star bending the light) has planets, to the planets may distort the magnified light away from the expectation. The distortion can be measured and data inferred about the nature of the object causing the disturbance (Gould, 1992; Mao, 1991). Figure 9 depicts how a star bends and focuses light towards the observer.

This method, however, has its flaws. For instance, microlensing events are extremely unpredictable; they can only a few hours to days and are one-time events (Bennett, et al., 1999; Rhie, et al., 2000). That means that follow up confirmation is required, usually by transit, radial velocity or astrometry. This method has been used successfully in the past, but has only found a handful of exoplanets, approximately 30 in total (Schneider, 2011).

Figure 9: Gravitational Microlensing e) Other Methods There are a number of less frequently used detection methods, which are used as secondary sources to confirm previously discovered exoplanets. These include; timing, transit duration variation, emission/ modulations, ellipsoidal variations, , relativistic beaming, and pulsar timing.

Exoplanets can also be identified through detection of radio emissions, either from the interaction of high energy particles with an atmosphere (Rucker, 2002) or from an intelligent civilization. “Intense auroral and magnetospheric low-frequency radio emissions have been observed from Earth, Jupiter, and recently a brown dwarf star” (Burke, 2014; Berger, et al., 2001). It can be inferred that exoplanets will give off similar emissions, and so searches using existing radio-telescopes have begun. Additionally, a new, large, low-frequency antenna array is under construction at Caltech's Owens Valley Radio Observatory in California (Taylor, 2013). Jim Burke (Burke, 2014) has stated “These searches are important because, if successful, they would open the prospect of finding exoplanets in orbits inclined so that star transits do not occur”.

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2.2.2 Diversity of Exoplanets The study of exoplanets has revealed a wealth of information on planetary systems and their formation. Entirely new classes of planets have been discovered and some truly bizarre worlds found. The closest planet to Earth that has been discovered orbits the star B, a mere 4.3 light years away (Dumusque, et al., 2012). The most massive planet discovered weighs ~28.5 times as much as Jupiter, and is so large it may turn out to be an extremely cool star (Sahlmann, et al., 2013). The planet with the longest orbital period, that is; the longest year, is GU Piscium b, which takes 163,000 years to orbit its star (Naud, et al., 2014). Conversely, the planet with the shortest orbital period (shortest year) is Kepler- 70b, which takes only 5.8 hours to orbit its star (Charpinet, et al., 2011). At this range it is also the hottest planet on record, at an average of 7,278 K (Charpinet, et al., 2011). Lastly, the system with the most planets is HD10180, with 7 confirmed planets and two candidates requiring further study (Tuomi, 2012).

These examples show the diversity of exoplanets, even from the tiny sample size of fewer than 2,000 planets, when there is estimated to be billions of exoplanets in our at least.

2.2.3 Current Exoplanet Missions Exoplanet detection and characterization missions have been ongoing since the mid 80’s and have had varying levels of success. There are now a number of missions currently running both on the ground and in space utilizing a number of different detection techniques.

2.2.3.1 Space-Based Missions Space-based missions have traditionally produced much more accurate results in far greater numbers than ground-based observations, primarily due to the reduction of atmospheric interference. This requires, however, immense costs in building a craft to survive the extreme environment of space, launching the payload, and achieving an orbit. Being in space also means that there are limited chances to maintain the craft should a problem occur. Some notable space-based exoplanet missions are listed below.

Kepler -2009-present There are a number of scientific mission objectives for NASA’s Kepler including determining the prevalence of terrestrial planets within the habitable zone of their star, determining the characteristics of terrestrial and short-period giant planets, and determining the characteristics of the stars that host planetary systems (NASA Ames Research Centre, 2014). More specifically it aims to determine the number of exoplanets in the habitable zone for a wide variety of stellar types, to characterize those planets in terms of orbit and size, estimate how many planets orbit multiple stars, determine characteristics of Hot Jupiters, further study previously identified planetary systems, and characterize the stellar hosts of planetary systems. (NASA, 2013)

The photometer on board Kepler is comprised of a basic Schmidt telescope with an aperture of 0.95 m coupled with a Charge Coupled Device (CCD) array. The telescope gives a field of view of 12 degrees (diameter) which is constantly pointed at a single group of stars over the mission duration. The CCD array is comprised of 42 detectors that are read out every three seconds. This instrument is designed not to take pictures, but instead defocuses the field to 10 arcseconds in order to gather photometric data. (Spitzer Science Center, 2014) The detectors collect data from any star with an greater than 16 within the field of view, meaning that around 100,000 main sequence stars are being observed. These target stars are continuously and simultaneously observed while the spacecraft is operational. The data recorded from the instruments is stored on board and transmitted to the ground approximately once per month. (Colen, 2014)

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K2: Four on-board reaction wheels were used to continuously point the Kepler spacecraft at its designated target (Van Dijk, 2010). In 2012, however, one of these wheels failed, shortly followed by a second wheel failure. These failures led to higher than acceptable friction levels, preventing Kepler from continuing on with its initially intended scientific mission (Johnson, 2013).

A new technique of controlling Kepler using solar radiation and the remaining two wheels has been proposed. This proposal is now under investigation in the hopes that further scientific data can be obtained from the spacecraft. The new mission is designated as ‘K2’.

The scientific goals of the K2 mission are still the same as before, however, the timeframe of individual missions have been significantly scaled back (NASA, 2013).

Microvariability and Oscillations of Stars (MOST) – 2003-2014 MOST was a Canadian-lead mission that used high-precision photometry to analyze the transits and eclipses of exoplanets around Sun-like stars, cool giants, and pre-main sequence stars (Walker, 2003). It was aimed at furthering our understanding of stars’ internal structure as well as their evolutionary state. In addition, it observed the death of massive stars and the birth of main sequence stars (University of British Columbia, 2014). The satellite utilized a Maksutov telescope with a 15cm aperture arranged with a periscope-like feed mirror to allow it to sit within the small volume of the microsatellite. The allowed for a wide field of view of about 2˚ in diameter, which enabled the telescope to be used by the attitude control system as a star tracker as well as a scientific instrument. The optics fed onto a pair of CCDs, one for guidance and one for science. The integration of these instruments could be stopped at any time through frame transfer; therefore there was no need for potentially unreliable moving parts such as a shutter. To further improve reliability, the instrument was made to be athermal, meaning that it can maintain focus on an object over a wide temperature range. (Walker, 2003)

The imaging instrument of MOST included a Fabry lens just in front of the CCD stage. This lens improved the sensor in a number of ways. Firstly, it spread the starlight over a larger number of pixels. Spreading the light in this way reduced the impact in variations of sensitivity from pixel to pixel, and to damaged pixels and columns. This method also dimmed the light slightly as it spread, reducing the chances of saturating the pixels with light. Secondly, this lens helped to mitigate the impact of attitude variability upon the sensor, with vibrations in space of up to ±10 arc seconds reduced to just 0.1 pixels on the sensor. The increased stability given to the sensor allowed it to obtain photometry down to amplitudes of a few parts per million for stars with an apparent magnitude down to six.

The Attitude Control System (ACS) of MOST was required to maintain a pointing accuracy greater than 25 arc second. The coarse pointing of the spacecraft was done using a suite of magnetometers, sun sensors, and reaction wheels. With these sensors and actuators it was able to orient the main solar array towards the Sun and roughly adjust the attitude towards the field of interest. For the fine pointing of the instrument, the guidance CCD could determine the pointing to within 3 arc seconds, again with reaction wheels as the main actuators. The spacecraft had the capability to desaturate the wheels using magnetic torquers. (Grocott, 2003; Walker, 2003)

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BRIght Target Explorer (BRITE ) – 2013-present BRITE is a follow-on nanosatellite constellation to the MOST mission, led by a collaboration between Canada, Austria, and Poland. Its scientific objectives include: the detection of planets around a large number of giant and supergiant stars; the study and discovery of more and; the study star clusters. In addition, it will study large-scale stellar surface structures, such as sun-spots, and their evolution. BRITE will continue to enhance human understanding of existing stars and keep a lookout for unexpected interesting events, such as comets and novae (Kusching, 2011).

The satellites stand at just 20 cm3, and so, their subsystems are much more compact than similar missions. Despite their diminutive size, the spacecraft still have full three axis control and a mission required pointing attitude accuracy down to 1.5 arc minutes (Koudelka, 2009). The ACS is comprised of both coarse and fine sun sensors, miniaturized reaction wheels, and three magnetorquers for momentum dumping. BRITE also includes a nanosatellite sized star tracker, which has a mass of just 500 g and power consumption of 0.5 W. The reaction wheels on board are able to keep the satellites stable to within ±0.5 arc minutes in pitch and yaw, and ±2.5 in roll within a 15 minute observation.

Photometers are the main instruments used on BRITE and consist of custom optics benches and CCD sensors. This was due to the stringent design requirements that were imposed upon the engineers (Deschamps, 2009).This mission also called for the final image to be defocused onto the sensor, which is not often found in commercial systems.

Spitzer Space Telescope (SST) – 2003-present SST was tasked with the mission of detecting celestial objects that are too cool or shrouded to be observed directly. The telescope takes in infrared light to observe how the early Universe might have appeared. It has studied stellar formation, young , gas and dust disks orbiting new-born stars, and planetary formation (Watanabe, 2008).

Spitzer was the first telescope to directly image an exoplanet, providing a wealth of information on atmospheric characteristics (Spitzer Science Center, 2014). In 2009 its primary mission ended when essential coolant was completely used up. The telescope has now been re-tasked for the Spitzer Warm Mission, primarily concerned with exoplanetary research (Spitzer Science Center, 2014).

The telescope itself is 4 m tall, weighs ~870 kg, and has been placed in an Earth-trailing, . It carries three main instruments; an Infrared Array Camera (IRAC), an Infrared Spectrograph (IRS) and the Multiband Infrared Photometer for Spitzer (MIPS). The IRAC can detect wavelengths ranging from 3.19 µm to 9.34 µm, has a field of view of 5.2x5.2 arc mins and format of 256x256 pixels. The IRS can detect wavelengths ranging from 5.2 µm to 26.0 µm and the MIPS can detect between 21 µm and 106 µm. The has a diameter of 86 cm with an F number of 1/12, it is made of Beryllium and was cooled to 5.5 K before the coolant ran out, though it now operates at 26 K (Werner, et al., 2004).

COnvection ROtation and planetary Transits (CoRoT)- 2006-2013 CoRoT launched in 2006 with the aim of observing over 200,000 stars for planetary transits. It utilized an afocal telescope with a diameter of 27 cm and a 4-CCD camera. The telescope was pointed at the same stellar field for roughly six months at a time to provide long term data. The photometer was accurate to <100 ppm, and this was used to detect planetary transits. The mission extended to studying stellar seismics, in order to gather information on stellar vibration, activity, binarity, and rotation (Le Gall, 2014). In 2013, the telescope suffered a computer malfunction, causing the main telescope to stop sending and receiving data (Hand, 2012). This problem was unable to be corrected and led to the end of the mission. The craft will now have its orbit lowered and be allowed to burn up in the atmosphere (Carlisle, 2013). Exoplanets Final Report Page 14

2.2.3.2 Ground-Based Missions Ground-based missions are primarily run out of large-scale observatories, which are generally not owned by those operating them. These missions are traditionally lower cost since the infrastructure is already in place; however, there is the additional challenge of atmospheric interference. This can be significantly mitigated but cannot be removed entirely. Some relevant ground-based missions include:

W.M. Keck Observatory -1990-present Keck has had a number of scientific directives over the years, as the scientific questions of exoplanetary research have matured. Between 1996 and 2008 Keck’s primary goals was the study of extrasolar planets: how they fit into a model of planetary and solar system formation, how our own solar system has evolved, and to how to support space-based missions (Akeson, 2009).

In addition to continual exoplanetary research, Keck has also been used to study a number of non- exoplanet related celestial events and objects. The Keck Telescopes have been used to discover new exoplanets using radial velocity (Marcy, et al., 2008) and for astrometry (Sozzetti, 2005).

Keck has a two-telescope configuration, with each reflecting telescope hosting a 10 m mirror. This puts the Keck as one of the largest observatories in the world and, along with the instrument suite across the two telescopes, one of the most useful in investigating exoplanets. Inside Keck I is the High Resolution Echelle Spectrometer (HIRES), which is largest of all the instruments found at Keck. (Vogt, et al., 1994)

Super Wide Angle Search for Planets (SuperWASP) – 2006-present SuperWASP is an array of eight cameras, each backed with a high-quality CCD. Each camera has a very wide field, around 2,000 times greater than a standard astronomical telescope. Every image captures data from roughly 100,000 stars, and produces 50GB of observational data per night. Each camera has an aperture of 11.1 cm, with an F number of 1/1.8. SuperWASP has a field of view is 61 degrees with a pointing error of only 30 arc seconds. The whole array is cooled down to 223 K (Wilson, 2014).

There are two SuperWASP stations, one in the Northern Hemisphere (SuperWASP-North, on the island of La Palma) and one in the Southern Hemisphere (SuperWASP-South, located in South Africa). This allows continuous tracking of the night sky as well as gathering data on both hemispheres. The array continuously and simultaneously monitors millions of stellar outputs to detect planetary transit events (Wilson, 2014).

2.2.4 Current Exoplanet Databases A number of online exoplanet databases have been created, archiving a considerable amount of data on known and potential exoplanets. These databases track all exoplanet discoveries and include data on mass, size, orbital velocity and inclination, eccentricity, spin, discovery year, method, and relevant scientific papers.

Examples of databases include: the Extrasolar Planets Encyclopedia (Schneider, 2011), which hosts information on exoplanet data, recent discoveries, upcoming exoplanet conferences, relevant sites, and a virtual observatory; NASA’s Exoplanet Archive (Akeson, 2014), which features technical, focusing on hard data and documentation; and The Exoplanet Orbit Database and (Wright, et al., 2011) , which specializes in plotting data as well as visualizing the orbits of exoplanets.

The main issue with these databases is that they all provide a different number of confirmed and candidate exoplanets. There is little consistency amongst the websites, leading to confusion as to the true number of exoplanets, and calls for a review of the data to be presented in a clear and concise format. An in-depth overview of these databases will be completed in Section 4.5. Exoplanets Final Report Page 15

2.3 FUTURE EXOPLANETARY RESEARCH A number of agencies and organizations around the world have exoplanet space missions or ground-based observatoriesplanned in the near-term. A survey of these upcoming projects is beneficial so that TP Exoplanets can understand planned scientific goals and identify areas of opportunity.

Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) -2017 The TESS (Figure 10) mission will complete a two-year survey of the closest and brightest G and K type stars, using four CCD wide-field view cameras to detect small planets and characterize their atmospheres (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2014). This survey will provide refined measures of planetary characteristic and the most favorable candidates for detailed follow-up by the James Webb Space Telescope. In 2017, TESS will be launched into a previously unused lunar resonance orbit, known as P/2. The satellite will be at 107,826 km at its lowest point to the Earth. This stage will be used to transmit TESS collected data down to Earth. This orbit also allows the satellite Figure 10: TESS Concept Art to stay clear of the Van Allen radiation belts. (Keesey, 2013)

James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) -2018 JWST (Figure 11) will be a 6.6 m telescope, placed at Earth-Sun L-2, and designed to observe in the Infrared (IR) spectrum. JWST will search for light from the first bright objects formed after the and the formation of galaxies, stars and planets. The main science mission objectives fall into four categories: 1) To identify the of the Universe and 2) To determine the evolution of galaxies to the present day 3) To study the evolution of the early stars and the formation of the planets 4) To study the properties of planetary systems and the origins of life. (NASA, 2014) JWST has four instruments to observe the universe, of which two are designed for exoplanetary research. The Near Infrared Cam (NIRCam) uses a to block the host light out so direct imaging of the exoplanets is possible. A prism is used to perform slitless Figure 11: JWST Concept Art spectroscopy and allow for analysis of the exoplanet composition. The Near Infrared Imager and Slitless Spectrograph (NIRISS) will use the transit method to perform detection and characterization through spectroscopy. NIRISS is also used for fine guidance when performing imaging.

The multi-layered sunshield at the bottom protects the sensitive detectors from the heat from the sun and allow passive cooling to bring temperature to 50 K (NASA, 2014). A cryocooler is also used to keep the beryllium mid infrared detectors at 7 K. The spacecraft subsystems are housed below the telescope and maintain power control, temperature and communications.

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Wide-Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST) -2024 WFIRST (Figure 12) will make use of a former reconaisannce satellite telescope at 2.4 m to perform exoplanet studies through wide-field imaging and slitless spectroscopy in the near infrared range. (NASA, 2014) Its primary mission will be to study , however it will also be used to perform microlensing observations of the and, with the addition of a coronagraph, conduct direct imaging of nearby giant exoplanets and debris disks (NASA, 2014).

Figure 12: WFIRST Concept Art The subsystem bus will consist of proven technology for use in geosynchronous orbit; the only new technology is in the payload. The planned mission duration is for six years. A geosynchronous orbit was chosen to enable continuous high-rate downlink to Earth.

The spacecraft is also designed with the capability of robotic on-orbit servicing if such technology is available in the future. It has been designed in a modular fashion for ease of servicing and construction.

CHaracterizing ExOPlanet Satellite (CHEOPS) -2017 CHEOPS is a European Space Agency- joint mission to perform high precision photometry on transiting planets of nearby, bright host stars. It will look at in depth characterization of super-Earth to mass planets that have already been identified through ground-based methods (ESA, 2014).

CHEOPS will be placed into a low Earth orbit (LEO) 6 am/pm sun synchronous orbit at 620 km to 800 km altitude (Center for Space and Habitability, 2014). The payload consists of 33.5 cm Ritchey-Chretien style telescope. CHEOPS will use a 6 am/pm LEO orbit ensures the satellite does not enter into Earth’s . However the Earthshine will reflect off the baffle into the primary mirror and cause unwanted signals, therefore the baffle has to be extended and an additional secondary inner baffle must be added to counter the stray light.

Figure 13: Cheops Concept Art The structure will be made from fiber and the mirrors are made from silver-coated Zerodur. The primary mirrors have holes drilled through to decrease the mass; however this will reduce the total photons the telescope can collect. The telescope will use a cover to block dust and light during launch, and memory metal Titanium Nickel lock will be used to remove the cap when required. The total payload mass will be 48.3 kg.

Figure 13 shows the size of the 2.6 m diameter sunshield compared to the rest of the spacecraft. This allows the payload to be thermally decoupled from the structure. The sunshield also houses the solar panels which will provide the 54 W required for payload operations. The satellite will be 3 axis stabilized using reaction wheels and nadir pointing will be maintained. This guarantees that the sunshield will keep pointing at deep space. A pointing stability of one arcsecond is to be achieved.

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Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) - 2022 Approved for construction in July 2014, this ground-based telescope will be located in Hawai'i, atop the Mauna Kea . The telescope will boast an impressive 30 m diameter mirror, consisting 492 individual smaller hexagonal mirrors, each with a diameter of 1.2 m (TMT, 2014). This makes the TMT truly an Extremely Large Telescope (ELT). The observatory's design is based on the Keck Telescope, but will far exceed its predecessor’s capabilities. TMT will have highly advanced optics to compensate for atmospheric interference, as well as a number of spectrometers. Some of its many proposed goals include the search for, and characterization of, exoplanets, as well as planetary formation (Silva, 2007).

Exoplanet Satellite (ExoPlanetSat) -2013 ExoPlanetSat is a proposed Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) led mission, designed to deploy a fleet of nanosatellites, each focusing on a bright star for 2 years from low inclination LEO, at 650 km. Its science mission would use a photometric instrument to detect rocky Earth-sized planets transiting nearby Sun-sized stars. The spacecraft will be designed to fit the Poly-Picosatellite Orbital Deployed (P- POD) specification of 10 cm x 10 cm x 34 cm and mass of ~4 kg allow for cost effective launches (Seager, 2014).

Figure 14: Conception of the ExoPlanetSat prototype showing cross (a) and table (b)

Figure 14 shows the two possible deployment configurations of the solar panels. In the launcher these panels will be folded close to the structure. The panels can produce 36.5 W when deployed in table configuration and 31 W when in cross configuration (Smith, et al., 2010).

The ExoPlanetSat mission will attempt to use Commercial Off-the-Shelf (COTS) whenever possible. The avionics are controlled by a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) and a star tracker and Kalman filter combination is used to estimate attitude. Coarse correction is achieved through use of reaction wheels, and fine correction used a secondary two-axis piezoelectric nano-positioning stage. The structure is a modified COTS 2U aluminum cage and the spacecraft is entirely passively cooled. An issue with this design is that the volume constraints limit the baffle size and therefore the lens is subject to stray light.

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Exoplanet Characterization Observatory (EChO) -2022 EChO is a mission that was proposed to ESA to be launched in 2020-2022. EChO would have covered a significant scientific gap in the characterization of exoplanets orbiting F, G, M, and K star types. (EChO, 2014). Its dispersive spectrograph, covering 0.4-1.6 µm, would have measured atmospheric composition, , planet formation, temperature, presence of and bioindicators among extrasolar planetary systems (EChO, 2014). The satellite was planned to have a mass of 2,100 kg and would have been launched into an Earth-Sun L2 halo orbit (ESA, 2013).

The telescope would have been a 1 m elliptical off-axis primary mirror that reflected into a secondary and then a tertiary mirror. Folding mirrors after the tertiary reflectors would have been used to facilitate the fine steering required for photometry. The sun shade would have been used to block unwanted light and also houses the solar arrays. The optical bench would have then split the target 0.55-11 micron waveband into 5 spectral channels. The medium wave IR and long wave IR require active cooling; however the shorter wavelengths would have utilized passive cooling.

PLAnetary Transits and Oscillations (PLATO) -2024 PLATO is planned for a 2022-2024 launch into an Earth-Sun L2 halo orbit. The PLATO mission seeks to understand the necessary characteristics of stars for planet formation. Using the transit method, PLATO will characterize the mass, radius, and age of near-by stars, as well as the mass, radius, and density of its orbiting planets (ESA, 2014) (ESA, 2014).

The PLATO telescope array consists of 32 ‘normal’ telescopes, operating in the optical region of the spectrum, which can provide the very large field of view required to observe a large number of stars. There is also an additional two ‘fast cameras for observing the brighter stars.

The payload will operate in a step and stare function, staring at a target for five months at a time, and a long stare phase, staring at two targets for two to three years each. PLATO will cover 50% of the sky during its planned six year mission. (ESA, 2014)

Space Infrared Telescope for Cosmology and Astrophysics (SPICA) -2025 SPICA is a JAXA mission planned to be placed into an Earth-Sun L2 halo orbit in 2025. The satellite will use its 3 m telescope to look at low resolution, mid-infrared spectral information of giant exoplanets with the aim of determining the atmospheric composition, and comparing to the Earth and local planets. SPICA will use direct imaging and wide field mid-infrared and far-infrared imaging to collect spectral readings of young gas giant planets within one gigayear (109). The chronograph will be designed to detect younger planets that are close to their host stars. (Swinyard, 2009)

SPICA will have four instruments, all of which require active cooling to a temperature of 4 K. Three of the four instruments use spectroscopy and the transit method to look at the atmospheres. The final instrument uses a coronagraph to take direct images of the exoplanet and determine composition from that. (JAXA, 2014)

European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT) -2022 E-ELT is planned for completion in early 2020s and will be the largest ground based telescope ever constructed. The E-ELT will observe in the visible and infrared wavelengths and will be available to perform a number of science experiments into galaxy astrophysics, star formations, and exoplanets (European Southern Observatory, 2014). With regards to exoplanet science, E-ELT will detect and possibly complete low resolution spectroscopy of giant exoplanets. In addition, it will study the formation of planetary systems around nearby young stars and the evolution of giant planets in stellar clusters (European Southern Observatory, 2014).

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Figure 15: Past and Future Missions Exoplanets Final Report Page 20

2.4 IDENTIFIED GAPS AND OVERLAPS IN EXOPLANETARY RESEARCH

2.4.1 Exoplanetary Research and Missions As discussed previously, the Exoplanet Roadmap (ESA, 2010), identified three main scientific research areas:

1. The detection of exoplanets; 2. The characterization of their internal structure; and 3. The characterization of their atmospheres including bioindicators.

Multiple dedicated space missions that are currently operational such as Kepler, Spitzer, and CoRoT, are contributing to the cataloguing of exoplanets, and thus research Area 1 and 2. Many planned missions will also contribute to the cataloguing of exoplanets. ESA’s CHEOPS is one such mission where it will characterize the internal structure of already catalogued exoplanets.

Using mass estimates obtained from ground spectroscopy, detailed measurements of exoplanet radius will be conducted, allowing for an approximation of the exoplanet internal structure. (ESA, 2014)

The ESA framework on (2015-2025) has currently downselected between two exoplanet mission options for M-class missions (~500 M €) for continuation into a Phase B study (detailed design phase). The selected mission is PLATO, the scientific goals of which are:

1. Detection and basic characterization of exoplanetary systems of all kinds, including small, terrestrial planets in the habitable zone; and 2. Identification of suitable targets for future, more detailed characterization.

PLATO will contribute to the determination of “fundamental planetary parameters (mass, radius, density, internal structure, orbital parameters) and will contribute to the identification of targets for atmospheric characterization.” (ESA, 2010). The mission will thus contribute to the improvement of the state of the art for Areas one and two.

One of the other candidate missions, that were not down selected, was the Exoplanet Characterization Observatory. EChO would have been the first dedicated mission to investigate exoplanetary atmospheres, fulfilling Areas 3 as defined by the ESA exoplanet roadmap. Meanwhile The Planet Hunting and Asteroseismology Explorer Spectrophotometer (PHASES) mission was proposed to determine the physical properties of starts and to be able to characterize any planets orbiting them to a high precision. As they weren’t selected to progress any further, there is a gap in the current roadmap of exoplanet mission for a spacecraft which is dedicated to the characterization of exoplanetary atmospheres.

From a mission timeline standpoint, the Exoplanet Exploration timeline, depicted in Figure 16, shows a gap in space-based platforms in the early 2020s, with only the JWST being operational, and WFIRST being planned for launch in 2024.

There have been a number of small satellite missions that have been either proposed or funded to study exoplanets. All of these missions like MOST, CHEOPS and BRITE which have been or are being built, or PHASES, EChO, and ExoPlanetSat which are proposed or under development, have to get over the challenge of the optics. Large missions such as Kepler and the JWST are large for a reason, including as large a mirror as possible to gather as much light as is needed to look at faint objects. Exoplanets Final Report Page 21

The MOST and BRITE missions have shown that microsatellites and nanosatellites can perform valuable exoplanet science at a modest price. The planed ExoPlanetSat which is still under development will provide another example of great science advancement in a small package. Overcoming the challenges due to the limited size of the optics, allows for exoplanet science to be conducted at price tags much more appealing and affordable to space fairing nations, and smaller universities.

Figure 16: Exoplanet Exploration: A Decade Horizon

2.4.2 Exoplanet Organizations A survey of exoplanet-focused organizations shows that there are both agency-sponsored and independent organizations in existence.

NASA, in partnership with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), has the Exoplanet Exploration Program (ExEP) The ExEP is “responsible for implementing NASA’s plans for the discovery and understanding of planetary systems around nearby stars” (JPL, Caltech, 2014). One of the positive aspects of ExEP is its strategic planning and timeline schedule for future missions. ExEP is part of a network of NASA-JPL-Caltech exoplanet organizations, including NASA Exoplanet Science Institute (NExScI) and PlanetQuest (Caltech, 2014). NExScI performs science analysis for ExEP projects while PlanetQuest is a well-designed outreach and education website that is part of the NASA-JPL-Caltech family of exoplanet organizations.

Numerous educational institutions have exoplanet-focused research groups with world class researchers. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Kavli Institute (MIT Kavli Institute, 2014), with leading researchers, such as Sara Seager, who pioneered the study of exoplanet atmospheres, is an example of such educational institution with dedicated exoplanetary research groups active with NASA Exoplanets Final Report Page 22

missions. Other university exoplanet groups are focused on promoting exoplanet in their local communities, such as the Oxford Extrasolar Planet and Planetary Research Group that is focusing on using exoplanets for outreach (Oxford Extrasolar Planet and Planetary Research Group, 2011). Certain organizations, such as the Planetary Society (The Planetary Society, 2014) and the International Astronomical Union (IAU) (International Astronomical Union, 2014), are explicit about their intent to involve the international community in exoplanetary research.

Two important gaps are noted from this research. First, there is an inherent lack of international collaboration. While ExEP, NExScI, and PlanetQuest seem to function well in their respective purposes, these organizations are NASA-focused and support NASA programs. The NASA-JPL-Caltech family of exoplanet organization currently has limited efforts to include other space agencies or other international organizations in their pursuits. Other government organizations such as the ExoPlanet Task Force (ExoPTF), is set up by the National Science Foundation to advise it and NASA on US-focused exoplanetary research strategy (National Science Foundation, 2014). This domestic-focused approach is also evident the U.K. organizations mentioned earlier.

The second gap became evident by reviewing the composition of these organizations. These organizations are independently focused for professionals (e.g. ExEP), educational institutions (e.g. MIT), or amateurs (e.g. Planetary Society). There is a clear gap in organizational focus that really pulled the different communities together. There may be some coordination in some of the organizations, but TP Exoplanets team feels that there is room for improvement on coordinating exoplanet efforts among professionals, academics, and amateurs.

A noted overlap in outreach efforts is evident when researching the Planetary Society. It has strong outreach efforts, similar to PlanetQuest. These two effective outreach organizations highlight duplication of efforts. Coordination and consolidation of outreach efforts is another area that TP Exoplanet believes can be improved. (NASA JPL, 2014)

2.4.3 Databases and Data Products Numerous exoplanet data repositories exist, including the NASA Exoplanet Archive (Caltech, 2014), the Exoplanet Data Explorer (California Planet Survey, 2014), the Extrasolar Planets Encyclopedia (L'Observatoire de Paris, 2014), and the Open Exoplanet Catalogue (MIT, 2014). The databases present the exoplanet data in varying manner and the data presented in the major databases originates from the same publications and the same observations. Efforts to consolidate data, and to standardize data formatting and search methods could result in benefits and improvements for the exoplanet community.

2.4.4 Outreach The Kepler mission has made significant scientific advances in a short period of time and has increased the number of verified exoplanets greatly. In order to use this increase in interest in the field to create a sustainable research area and continue growth into the future, it is important to maintain public interest and engagement. One example of this is the Open Source differential photometry Code for Accelerating Amateur Research (OSCAAR) project that is being sponsored by NASA. This project allows amateur astronomers to input their own data which they have gathered using their own equipment and generate good scientific information in the form of a . At the moment this is still in development, but with further work and advertising it could encourage more amateurs to get involved. Inclusion of exoplanets within education systems, from lower grade teaching up to university research, will be vital in maintaining interest and help to grow the field. (OSCAAR, 2014)

Exoplanetary research largely requires taking numerous images of as many stars as possible and hunting down differences which may indicate the presence of an exoplanet. This means that these missions Exoplanets Final Report Page 23

generally produce a large quantity of data, including many false positives that need to be investigated further. With roughly 1,800 verified planets and a lot still awaiting confirmation, there have been efforts to reduce the number of candidates, using crowdsourcing to engage the public in data processing. The website Planethunters.org (PlanetHunters, 2014) allows users to undergo a quick tutorial and then start to analyze data from the Kepler mission. This activity allows the public to get involved in exoplanetary research and reduces the computer time required to digitally process this data.

Further outreach activities aimed at amateur astronomers can be introduced to help this cause. Astronomers can coordinate efforts and use a method called differential photometry to look at unconfirmed targets found by alternative methods such as radial velocity or astrometry in order to provide verification.

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3. SCOPE OF THE TEAM PROJECT

The main objectives of this project, as set out in the original briefing (ISU, 2014), are as follows:  To document ways for increasing the science return of investigations through improved communications and collaborations among international researchers;  To identify ways in which emerging spacefaring nations and developing countries can participate in exoplanetary research;  To address the social consequences of exoplanet discoveries;  To have a positive educational experience in learning how teamwork and problem solving are achieved in an international, multicultural and multidisciplinary environment with time and resource constraints; and  To produce a report with practical and actionable recommendations that will assist decision makers and influence the future direction of international exoplanetary research.

In this section, we will define the scope of this project. One of the early steps of setting up this project was to define the TP Exoplanet’s mission statement and from there, we redefined our aims and objectives to better guide the work of this TP.

3.1 MISSION STATEMENT TP Exoplanets aims to provide an organizational framework for an intercultural, international, and interdisciplinary collaboration on exoplanetary research, education, and outreach, starting with the identification and development of a mission that will unify the exoplanet groups around the world.

3.2 PROJECT AIMS AND OBJECTIVES To achieve the project objectives outlined below, TP Exoplanets recommends the establishment of EXO, the notional Exoplanet eXploration Organization. EXO would provide a 3i platform for sharing exoplanet data globally. This proposed initiative would use a low-budget, innovative, and inclusive ideology, where anyone, regardless of age, nationality, or experience, can contribute to the field of exoplanetary research. The scientific mission objective for the organization would be to provide additional analysis capability for the data provided by existing and future large-scale missions, such as the Kepler telescope and the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS). This analysis will include verification of planetary candidates, classification of their size and mass, and spectroscopy to determine their atmospheric composition if an atmosphere is present. To add to open-access data from established missions, EXO will design a space-based and cost-effective small satellite mission to provide characterization data that compliments the existing survey data.

This will be achieved through the UniQuE (United Quest for Exoplanets) mission, a proposedspace-based exoplanet characterization mission.

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3.2.1 Aims The aims of TP Exoplanets are as follows: 1. To identify current gaps and overlaps in the approach towards an international exoplanetary research effort; 2. To propose a framework for an international organization for exoplanetary research and for the UniQuE mission; 3. To research the social concerns, economic impacts, and legal issues relevant to both EXO and its UniQuE mission; and 4. To analyze the previous effects of disruptive technologies, and examine how to recreate the actions and social context that influenced the dreamers of yesteryear.

3.2.2 Objectives The objectives of TP Exoplanets are as follows: 1. Within the EXO: 1. To assess the need for an international organization for exoplanetary research and determine its relationship with existing organizations; 2. To recommend a structure for an international organization on exoplanetary research 3. To sponsor a mission to further exoplanetary research; 4. To propose a suitable method of sharing the data collected by the exoplanet community; and 5. To determine the composition, nature, governance, and economic influence of the organization.

2. To create the UniQuE mission in a way that involves multiple interested parties in its organization and research: 1. To produce a set of mission-defining requirements, a Concept of Operations (ConOps), and a conceptual design for the mission that follows systems engineering approaches as shown in Section 5.0 of this document; 2. To produce engineering and application solutions that fulfill the UniQuE mission goals (as defined in Section 5.1) and involve the international engineering community; and 3. To examine current and possible future technologies that may be available or developed for the UniQuE mission.

3.3 RATIONALE The recent upsurge of exoplanet discoveries and interest in research has made this an opportune time to examine this field using the ISU’s 3i approach. Due to the need for a new and unconstrained approach within the field of exoplanetary research, as shown in Section 2.4, we must undertake a detailed investigation of the current and future situation. EXO and UniQuE, will address the challenges that have been identified in ongoing exoplanetary research, and close gaps in the exoplanet roadmaps that have been proposed by major space agencies.

Since the first planet orbiting a star outside the solar system was discovered in 1992 (NASA, 1992), an enormous effort has been made to increase the number of detected exoplanets. Various missions and techniques, both space- and ground-based, are dedicated to the search for and confirmation of exoplanets. As of the date of publication of this report (August 5th, 2014) a total number of 5,017 exoplanet candidates have been detected (NASA JPL, 2014). This number has increased dramatically in the past few years, as can be seen in Figure 1, due largely to the contribution of NASA’s Kepler mission, and to recently developed confirmation methodologies, such as multiplicity “a statistical method for verifying exoplanet candidates.” (NASA, 2014). Exoplanets Final Report Page 26

As can be seen from Figure 17, both the number of exoplanets that have been discovered and the number that have been confirmed are increasing at an almost “EXOponential” rate. However, there is a clear difference between the rate of exoplanet discoveries and the rate of confirmations, leading to an obvious gap. This demonstrates the rationale behind the time and effort that EXO will dedicate to public outreach. The confirmation of exoplanet candidates is a task that can be undertaken by the public and amateur astronomers to close this gap and speed up the confirmation process for exoplanets.

Figure 17: Number of potential exoplanets detected per year using specified techniques

Astronomers have only confirmed that 1,811 (36%) of these candidates are definitely exoplanets by follow-up observations (Schneider, 2011). The increasing gap between candidates and confirmed exoplanets, and the vast amount of data from existing and future exoplanetary missions a problem that EXO and its UniQuE space-based mission can address.

The first motivation behind the creation of EXO and UniQuE is to involve every nation— spacefaring, emerging, and previously uninvolved—in exoplanetary research. EXO will create a global outreach program to give emerging spacefaring nations and researchers in those countries an opportunity to contribute to current exoplanetary research projects. EXO will also provide resources to the scientific community, amateur astronomers, and the general public at every level of education to allow them to contribute to the growing excitement of exoplanetary research and the delivery of scientifically relevant data. Increasing public interest in this field will not only advance exoplanetary research, but also lead to an increased interest among future generations, showing them the benefits of studying science and engineering.

The second motivation behind the creation of EXO is to increase the scientific return of exoplanetary research through improved communication and collaboration in the international research community. To achieve this, EXO will provide a framework for collaboration between interested parties- in order to guide Exoplanets Final Report Page 27

the rapidly increasing interest in and research work in the field of exoplanets. EXO will distribute work packages among participating international entities, set a data standard, and coordinate a basis of knowledge exchange through annual conferences and professional meetings.

The final motivation for this new approach to exoplanetary research is to provide an exoplanet- characterizing mission to fill current gaps in knowledge with a cost-effective mission. TP Exoplanets has examined the roadmaps of two well established space agencies, NASA and ESA (ESA, 2010; NASA, 2013), and identified gaps to address. The first of these gaps is the lack of exoplanet confirmation efforts; Kepler, CoRoT, and have found many candidate exoplanets that require confirmation. This effort will be addressed through the outreach and education committee of EXO, which will engage universities and amateur astronomers internationally in exoplanet confirmation through various ground-based methods (Bright Hub, 2014). The confirmation efforts will focus on obtaining the missing exoplanet parameters—including orbital parameters, mass, radius, and internal structure The second gap has been identified as the lack of atmospheric characterization of confirmed exoplanets, which is difficult to do with ground based observations due to the interference of our own atmosphere’s absorption features. Atmospheric characterization looks for traces of which possibly indicate life, such as CH4, CO2 and H2O (Vaccari, 2000). All current missions like Kepler and most future missions like ExoPlanetSat or TESS will only detect new exoplanets through changes in brightness of their host star, whereas atmospheric characterization is required in order to identify exoplanets which could possibly host life. (Smith, et al., 2010; Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2014) No currently planned space mission is looking at characterizing atmospheres, as PLATO was chosen over EChO for ESA Class M missions. EChO, if chosen, would have been a mission dedicated to characterizing exoplanet atmospheres. Looking long-term, JWST and WFIRST will be able to characterize atmospheres but exoplanetary research is a secondary objective of these programs and they will not capture all transits. These programs are also very expensive and WFIRST is still in the development phase and is not scheduled to be available until 2024.

The UniQuE mission will provide relevant scientific data about confirmed exoplanet atmospheres through spectroscopy of transiting planets. This will be achieved via a constellation of satellites, designed and operated by members of EXO. This unique mission concept, in combination with the overall guidance and the public outreach campaign of EXO, will fill the identified gap in the knowledge of exoplanetary atmospheres. The UniQuE mission will both increase the scientific return and excite previously uninvolved individuals and nations in the emerging field of exoplanetary research. This will lead to greater awareness and appreciation of exoplanets among future generations. Exoplanets Final Report Page 28

4. EXO - EXOPLANETS EXPLORATION ORGANIZATION

4.1 ORGANIZATION DEFINITION AND DESIGN TP Exoplanets aims to propose a framework for EXO that will allow for 3i collaboration on exoplanetary research, education, and outreach with the identification and development of a unifying scientific mission as an initial objective. This section describes the rationale for proposing an organization focused on exoplanetary research, the design and capabilities of EXO, and a description of how EXO operates.

4.1.1 Rationale for EXO There is consensus among astronomers, both professional and amateur, that the search for Earth-like, life- sustaining planets is an inspiring area of . International collaboration on exoplanetary research is inhibited by high costs and the lack of appropriate mechanisms. It is quite difficult for a single country to bear all the resource expenditures on its own given their limited budgets, technical capabilities, and workforces. Historically, national competition has been a major influence on the character of large space programs carried out by the dominant space powers. Cooperation among these space powers and other countries may be the only way to achieve ambitious space goals in the future. This builds the fundamental rationale for the establishment of a new international organization focused on cooperation.

Existing and future missions are always being questioned during the process of policy making, as was highlighted during the United States Subcommittee on Space and Subcommittee on Research Joint Hearing - Exoplanet Discoveries: Have We Found Other ?. Questions such as “Is the current portfolio of missions and research still the ideal path under constrained budgets? How can we build upon recent inspirational discoveries in the most efficient manner?” have been brought forward (Committee On Science, Space, and Technology, 2013). International collaboration seems to be a natural and logical answer to these questions as it enables the sharing of cost, technology, and discoveries, as proved by the successful example of the International Space Station (ISS).

Knowing the benefits of partnership, the team determined that forming an international organization is the best way to facilitate collaboration. The TP Exoplanets noted many potential benefits of an organization over other methods of collaborative efforts. An organization offers a formal means of gathering entities and can provide the systematic communication necessary to provide longevity for execution of long-term objectives. Thus, TP Exoplanets designed an international framework with the aim that any country that is not yet a space-faring nation or any interested individuals can participate. In addition, TP Exoplanets wishes its organization, EXO, to carry out multiple functions. An organization is the most effective means to combine these multiple functions; for example, EXO will not only deal with missions, but will also have educational and outreach elements.

With these aspects in mind, the political and legal elements of a voluntary, non-binding international collaboration of EXO and its mission, UniQuE, will also be addressed within this section.

4.1.2 Overview of Current Situation This subsection presents a general overview on the progress and attitude of the major space powers towards exoplanetary research, as well as the role of established international collaborations in current and planned exoplanet missions.

1. The United States NASA has its own complete roadmap for exoplanetary research and a large presence in the space industry (NASA, 2013). NASA notes that the exoplanetary science programs need a significant amount of financial input in the long-term, meaning that it is unlikely that NASA can complete all of its missions Exoplanets Final Report Page 29

alone. Incorporating global knowledge and resources to develop exoplanetary research is a more cost- effective and risk-reduced approach. JWST is an example of NASA’s participation in international cooperation for space science missions, in this case, among NASA, ESA, and CSA. (NASA, 2014)

2. Europe In 2010, ESA released "A European Roadmap for Exoplanets" that attributes great importance to international collaboration in exoplanetary research programs for the future. (ESA, 2010) This emphasis on international cooperation in exoplanetary research is in line with ESA’s current practices. ESA has already demonstrated cooperation with other countries in aerospace programs for the purpose of astronomy research, such as participating in JWST and the Space-based Multi-band Astronomical Variable Objects Monitor (SVOM) Project in cooperation with China. (CNES, 2014)

3. Russia The Russian Federal Space Agency () plans for future astronomy projects, such as the Osiris (Astrometria) project, could be interpreted as an interest in exoplanetary research. Osiris is proposed to be a high-accuracy interfrometric astrometry craft, perhaps resembling NASA’s Space Interferometry Mission (SIM). Recently, Russia has cooperated with China on the Probe Mission (The Planetary Society, 2010) and ESA on the ExoMars Project (Zak, 2014), which indicates Russia’s willingness to cooperate with other space entities.

4. China China is a nation with a rapidly progressing economy, resulting in great progress in its space science and technology areas. The development of astronomy, which is under the regime of Chinese Academy of Sciences, is conducted separately from its aerospace plans run by the China National Space Administration. China attaches great importance to aerospace missions, such as its Lunar Probe and Mars Probe missions. China has strong desires for international cooperation in the aerospace field as indicated in its Space White Paper (The People’s Republic of China, 2011) and CNSA has actively promoted the development of related technologies and demonstration projects. The National Astronomical Observatory has its own series of research projects, including the world's largest radio telescope, the Five Hundred Meter Aperture Spherical Telescope (Harris, 2009), and has participated in many international projects such as the IV (Sloan Digital Sky Survey, 2014), the Thirty Meter Telescope (Thirty Meter Telescope, 2009), and the Square Kilometer Array (Peng, 2012). This demonstrates China’s support for international collaboration.

5. Others In addition to those mentioned above, Japan, Canada, India, and other current space powers are involved in international cooperation on exoplanet projects or are developing their own exoplanet projects. Examples include the launch of Japanese ASTRO-F (also known as ) infrared astronomical satellite (JAXA, 2013); Canada’s participation in JWST (CSA, 2012); and the Mars Orbiter Spacecraft launched by India (ISRO, 2013).

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4.1.3 Organization Research To establish a strong structure for the organization, we researched a wide range of space and non-space international organizations and projects, including:  IAU  Committee on Earth Observation Satellites (CEOS)  ISS  Committee on Space Research (COSPAR)  International Space Exploration Coordination Group Inter-Agency Space Debris Coordination Committee (IADC)  Planetary Society and  Search for Extra-terrestrial Intelligence Institute  World Bank Group  ESA

TP Exoplanets used appealing characteristics from those organizations with a long history, well-organized structure, matured operation models, and a focus on international collaboration to design an appropriate organization formation and mechanism to make EXO well-organized, feasible, and sustainable.

4.1.4 EXO Objectives and Scope A draft Terms of Reference (TOR) has been prepared for EXO. The TOR describes the goals, structure, and some governing processes of the organization. For the TOR, refer to Appendix A.

EXO is an intercultural, international, and interdisciplinary organization focused on exoplanet science, which provides an international framework to achieve three primary objectives: 1. Facilitate exoplanetary research coordination and collaboration 2. Expand exoplanetary research outreach efforts and public education 3. Support and coordinate the development of exoplanetary research missions

The facilitation of coordination and collaboration for exoplanetary research will consist of:  Identifying collaborative opportunities within exoplanetary research;  Facilitation of communication between members about relevant exoplanet missions, research, and opportunities;  Offering an annual conference to members on the status of these activities with follow on a plenary meeting;  Developing a public interface for existing exoplanet data and data from EXO missions; and  Promoting a standard format for data.

The efforts for expansion of exoplanet outreach and public education improvements will include:  Engagement of a wider public by making exoplanetary research accessible and attractive  Allowing amateur astronomers to contribute to the research effort and discuss exoplanets  Helping schools and educators worldwide by providing resources, lesson plans, access to experts, and ideas for trips and activities  Helping educational institutions design and build their own missions and collaborate on and share research projects and ideas  Providing consultation on current exoplanetary research and suggesting possible collaborations between smaller groups and nations, with particular effort towards emerging space communities  Providing expertise on fundraising to support exoplanet educational and outreach activities Exoplanets Final Report Page 31

The development of exoplanetary research missions will be achieved by providing:  Satellite requirements for the UniQuE mission to participants  Guidance for design reviews for all mission stages  Support, technical advice, and financial advice to mission participants  Guidelines for data storage and formatting  Coordination of EXO mission operations  Awareness to the international community of opportunities to address gaps in exoplanetary research

4.1.5 Organizational Structure, Membership, and Sharing of Information

The organizational structure of EXO is displayed in Figure 18 below. Refer to TOR Appendix A for details such as roles of the governmental bodies, each Committee’s, and each Subcommittee’s roles and the mission selection process.

Figure 18: Organizational Structure

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4.1.6 Membership EXO membership is split into two categories: National Members and Individual Members. These membership classifications allow for participation by government agencies, non-governmental organizations, and individuals.

National Members are space agencies, governmental entities, or intergovernmental entities that coordinate and fund exoplanet activities. National Members may invite supporting expertise from other organizations, entities, or government agencies by including those experts in their delegation. Individual Members are any individuals or any entities that have an interest in exoplanetary research, outreach, and education. Plenary meetings shall be held among members to determine policy, review progress on the projects and activities being undertaken, and set the agenda of activities for the upcoming year. Subcommittees hold meetings as required based on each subcommittee’s calendar.

4.1.7 Information Sharing EXO will have two ways of sharing information. Information associated with organizational activities will be shared through annual plenary meetings between EXO members. Scientific and other related information such as data, findings, and reports from EXO’s research, education, and outreach activities, and discoveries from UniQuE, will be released to the public after a data exclusivity period established by the Board of Directors in consultation with the international scientific community. This data exclusivity period is set to give data access priority to the particular member or the participants of EXO mission. That being said, activities of EXO are designed to promote and to improve exoplanets activities, thus all of the data will eventually be shared in public domain. Release of such information may be accomplished via multiple mediums such as the EXO web site, scientific journals, conferences, and media.

4.2 FINANCIAL PLAN This financial plan is specifically aimed at addressing how EXO will support itself as a new organization and raise money to meet its objectives. We recognize the magnitude of the challenge, but we feel that community outreach and education will enable small countries as well as agencies and philanthropists to gather financial support for future budgets. The EXO preliminary financial plan is intended to serve as a living document that can be used as a blueprint to guide EXO's decisions and actions as we move toward establishing EXO as a 3i organization.

4.2.1 Economic Rationale The EXO will be a non-profit entity that derives its economic motives from the social aspects of exploration, global need, and potential services. Based on Google Trend Analysis, (see Figure 21) exoplanet data searches are in the top five of astronomical topics. There is a public hunger to understand if other habitable planets exist, and if there is a potential of life elsewhere in the Universe. Small developing nations would benefit greatly from the technology spinoffs of the space industry in the areas of social well-being, disaster management and public health as has been shown in other space fairing nations. Examples include: “Remote Monitoring of Medication Management in Patients Homes” (NASA, 2013); “Air Systems Provide Life Support to Miners” (NASA, 2013). Economic Considerations of EXO are also described in Section 4.5.3.

There is a natural evolution for local businesses to use spin-off technologies and create new services for the community. We believe this motivation is sufficient to raise $130,000 start-up capital to begin the iterative process of building the EXO over the next 8 years based on our financial plan.

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4.2.2 Strategic Partnerships EXO will cultivate strategic partnerships with governments, organizations, private foundations, academic institutions, and individuals to capitalize on the complementary strengths of each entity. EXO will actively coordinate with economic development organizations to assess the market, and develop strategies that will meet the emerging needs of local communities.

From a funding perspective, the future methods will not resemble the past. “For better or worse,” said Steven A. Edwards (Edwards, 2013) , a policy analyst at the American Association for the Advancement of Science, “the practice of science in the 21st century is becoming shaped less by national priorities or by peer-review groups and more by the particular preferences of individuals with huge amounts of money.” (Broad, 2014). NASA’s has recognized the need to convert from a pure government funded Center, to a multi-purpose that receives funding from commercial partners. (SpaceX), (Stratolauch), (), Robert Bigelow (Bigelow), (), and Larry Page (Google) are all extremely wealthy business men who decided their hard earned money would be best spent developing space and science research companies. As very successful business men, they realize space businesses are rarely profitable in the early years, but know that their investments will pay off in the long term. These are the strategic partners that will shape EXO.

4.2.3 Financial Plan The following factors are critical to the development of EXO into a 3i organization:  Organizational Development  Outreach and Education  UniQuE Mission  Strategic Partnering

Each of these factors will be addressed in this financial plan. Depicted below in Table 2: 8-Year Projected Expenses and Table 1: 8-Year Projected is a summary of the 8-year scalable organization projected Financial Plan: Table 1: 8-Year Projected Income

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Table 2: 8-Year Projected Expenses

Ground Rules and Assumptions:  Starting in 2017, a 20% multiplier is used to grow expenses for the projected years, except for the organization  Organization costs are based on Work Year Equivalents (WYE); a blended rate for all employees of $80,000 US per year. As opposed to a 20% multiplier, the projected number of support personnel is multiplied by $80,000.  The number of organization personnel is expected to stabilize in 2020  Projected expenses for all other functions will cover materials, and subcontracted services. This approach minimizes core organization workforce yet maximizes the capability to support surges.  EXO cost risk mitigation strategy is to carry a 30% margin for the first three years, a 25% margin the next three years and a 20% margin for all subsequent years.  All UniQuE mission costs are defined on a WYE basis  The first 3 conferences are projected to attract the following number of exhibitors: 1. First conference = 50 exhibitors 2. Second conference = 75 exhibitors 3. Third conference = 100 exhibitors  The first 3 conferences are projected to attract the following number of paid attendees: 1. First conference = 300 attendees 2. Second conference = 400 attendees 3. Third conference = 500 attendees

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 Membership Dues for Individuals; US$ 1. Person=$100 2. University=$250 3. organization=$500  Membership Dues for Nations and Organizations $25,000; US$

4.2.4 Roadmap of Organizational Development To successfully grow and become a sustainable organization, EXO will need to take incremental development steps. The organization will have to start with a small full-time staff supported by volunteers. This early group will work to find preliminary funding and begin to create the products and knowledge base necessary to provide value to external organizations. These initial products include information of what activities are currently ongoing across the world in the field of exoplanets and the development of education and outreach material like amateur astronomer kits and a Lego® model of the UniQuE satellite.

The organization will begin to grow in size culminating in the first annual exoplanet conference which will kick off efforts to design UniQuE. The next few years will be focused on the design of UniQuE and continued growth in EXO finally resulting in the launches of UniQuE satellites and the management of that program.

Figure 19: EXO Growth Timeline below displays a project growth timeline to the early 2020s.

PROJECTED INCOME

Figure 19: EXO Growth Timeline Exoplanets Final Report Page 36

4.3 ORGANIZATION CAPABILITIES This section will describe the activities of the EXO. With the goals, structure, and features proposed below, EXO will benefit many aspects of exoplanetary research.

4.3.1 Development of Ideas EXO generates new ideas through discussion among people with different backgrounds. Using these new ideas, it will be more feasible to meet the scientific purposes and expectations of the public from different countries and further scientific progress, thus improving future scientific endeavors. New findings and methods will be useful to promote other scientific missions and to develop novel engineering technologies. EXO’s framework will utilize conferences, the internet, plenary meetings, and various other forms of communication to share these ideas.

4.3.2 Resource Use EXO will optimize the utilization of resources available from all participating organizations. The resources may include but are not limited to: professional scientists, engineers, and other human resources; scientific devices and instruments; achievements acquired already by scientists; and data sharing platforms. Sharing of resources could be the best way to save money and execute resource-heavy programs.

4.3.3 Attract Political and Financial Support EXO seeks to attract attention from professional institutions and interest from the public. Professional and public engagement will improve the capability of EXO to obtain political and financial support from nations as well as from crowdsourcing donations. Crowdsourcing support helps people become involved in scientific activities and accelerates the approval of big projects.

4.3.4 Data Sharing EXO will offer a new kind of data sharing platform. Creating a new platform for data sharing with different countries favors wide and rapid knowledge transfer and educational progress. EXO’s data sharing methodology is further detailed in Section 4.6.

4.3.5 Outreach and Education EXO will provide expertise and guidance to support exoplanet outreach activities making exoplanets more accessible and attractive. EXO involves amateurs and business groups. Outreach activities currently under consideration include: LEGO® models of the UniQuE satellites, amateur astronomer kits that allow exoplanetary research to be performed, and social media campaigns aimed at raising awareness of exoplanets. Awareness and interest in exoplanets has the potential for increased donations or attention from larger space organizations.

EXO will work to develop and provide educational materials appropriate for students all levels. These will be targeted at students from both developed and developing nations to attempt to raise interest in exoplanets and general science worldwide. Exoplanets Final Report Page 37

4.4 ORGANIZATION LINK WITH A RESEARCH MISSION EXO is designed for the purpose of promoting the development of exoplanetary research through extensive international cooperation, resource coordination, and social outreach. One way of unifying these activities is through the creation of a collaborative mission to be executed by the members of EXO. Figure 20 below shows how EXO would oversee the creation of a research mission involving its member institutes. To carry out the exploration and research goals of the organization, a typical project within the organization would have a work flow as shown on the left side. The right portion shows the responsibility allocation of the EXO subcommittees. These subcommittees can be found in Figure 18: Organizational Structure.

Figure 20: Mission process link with organization

Figure 20 is a detailed description of the Mission Process, including what the EXO subcommittees’ responsibilities are within each stage. Exoplanets Final Report Page 38

4.4.1 Mission Proposal and Selection Within the EXO, the Public Platform (PP) and the Science and Technology Committee (STC) can propose mission concepts.

1. The Exoplanets Society within the PP provides a technical exchange and sharing platform for all the exoplanetary science enthusiasts. The Exoplanets Society can obtain more exoplanet data through open recruitment and engagement. The Commercial Mission Partner (CMP) sub-branch considers the background and technical development of their industry in order to put forward research proposals. These Commercial Mission Partners have a vested interest in technology development and potential spin-offs arising from exoplanet missions. 2. One of the major responsibilities of the STC is to develop a roadmap defining EXO’s strategy towards exoplanetary research. STC uses the results of its meetings to ensure that this roadmap considers the current and possible future state of astronomy, space technology, and life sciences. STC then proposes feasible exoplanet missions based on this roadmap.

Mission proposals submitted by PP and STC are held by STC. Then the STC Academic Committee reviews the proposals and selects the top mission candidates to undergo a feasibility analysis and evaluation.

4.4.2 Feasibility Analysis and Evaluation After the STC mission selection, the STC, Program Execution Committee (PEC), Policy Guidance Committee (PGC), and Finance Management Committee (FMC) will form a united team to combine their expertise and to conduct a feasibility analysis. This analysis will consider aspects such as market demand, supply of resources, scale of construction, technology readiness level, equipment selection, environmental impact, financing, and profitability. The team will research and analyze all of those aspects of the project and by using information on the financial, economic and social environment it will create a forecast for the completion of the project.

When the feasibility study is completed, the project will be submitted to the Independent Evaluation Committee (IEC). The IEC will carry out a comprehensive evaluation of the overall plan, project technical route, budget management, policy and other factors. According to the evaluation, results are given to the Board of Directors. The Board of Directors then reviews the IEC report and decides whether or not to approve the project. If it is approved, the Board of Directors will allocate funds for the mission.

4.4.3 Policy and Budget Consultation Although exoplanet missions are aimed at scientific research, there are still policy issues to consider, such as technology transfer and data sharing. When the mission is defined, PGC shall analyze and coordinate the policy issues that might arise in the process of project operation to ensure the smooth progress of the mission. From the beginning of the mission, the PGC must carefully consider compliance and understanding of space-related export controls and intellectual property (IP) policies.

Budget is also a key consideration for all missions. The operating funds of EXO come from multiple countries, individuals, and donations. If the total budget required for the mission can be accounted for by EXO funds, FMC will coordinate the mission budget within EXO according to the mission budget; if the project exceeds the funds of EXO, FMC shall organize members of EXO and the project group to request further voluntary funding from outside sources. Exoplanets Final Report Page 39

4.4.4 Execution and Operation When the mission starts, a project team will be composed of members of the PEC, PGC, FMC, and a project manager who is chosen by the PEC and is responsible for mission operations.

1. Contract Awarding Missions which can be supported solely by EXO, called ‘self-funded missions’, can be operated by members or institutions; for those missions financed by a small number of members of EXO, those members receive priority. Contract awards are given out based out form the Board of Directors after they evaluate the findings of the IEC.

2. Interface Coordination Exoplanet missions contain ground-based observation platforms, space-based observation platforms, data analysis and processing platforms, and other sub-systems. Missions may contain different subcontractors and states, so the interface coordination of each platform and subcontractor is one of the key responsibilities of the project team. PEC can negotiate with every platform and sub-sector to jointly develop uniform standards to guide the interface coordination.

3. Operation Management For self-funded missions which are supported entirely by EXO, the operations and day to day maintenance of the assets will be disseminated across the members who wish to be involved. Ground stations and control centers operated by these institutes will command any space based elements as well as collecting all data produced by them. Any scientific data which has been produced for exoplanetary research will then be passed on to EXO to be openly shared with the community. Ground based missions will follow a similar structure; however will be controlled by a single command center on site.

When missions are not supported entirely by EXO, but are intended for the further development of the field, the organization will collate scientific data which is produced by the project and ensure that it is openly available to the wider community.

4.4.5 Data Management and Analysis Most exoplanet missions construct space-based or ground-based telescope platforms to observe targets using different methods, thus generating a large quantity of data that requires analysis (Feigelson & Babu, 2012). In order to share data for open research, all data will be managed by PP and put into a public server (see Section 4.6 for EXO’s database, “The Extended Extrasolar Planets Encyclopedia”), so that every of STC and other exoplanetary research enthusiasts. Exoplanets Final Report Page 40

4.5 INTERNATIONAL COLLABORATION One of EXO’s primary objectives is to enable worldwide collaboration, enabling cooperation among countries, including previously non-space fairing nations. This cooperative effort may bring about the creation of new modes and policies for international collaboration EXO aims to create opportunity for communication between Members, promoting peaceful partnerships and fostering unifying relationships. As seen in previous international missions, peaceful cooperation in pursuit of a common goal can lead to strong, trusting bonds, paving the way for future collaborations and peaceful interactions In addition, EXO will enable the scientific community to share ideas easily and efficiently. EXO’s mission will be supported by a coalition of international members, allowing for greater access to technology, vendors, resources, and data sharing. Data from this type of project can be shared internationally for various reviews and interpretations, utilizing knowledge from experts with an array of unique capabilities. The science return from an exoplanet mission has the potential to impact all of humanity; as such, everyone should have the opportunity to be involved in its discovery.

4.5.1 Scope of Political and Legal Entity - Terms of Reference for EXO A draft EXO TOR describing the organization’s purpose and scope has been developed (see Appendix A). These TOR are a fundamental document for EXO’s policy and decision-making, so the contents have been considered from a policy and legal perspective.

In general, a TOR ensures a common understanding of the scope among members, and it can be either binding or non-binding. If it is binding, the TOR has a contract-like nature and imposes responsibilities to members. This can often complicate participation process because becoming a Member is often deemed in partial transfer of its decision-making power. This is especially troublesome for governmental agencies. Since EXO aim to incorporate any interested individuals and entities, both governmental and non-governmental, EXO decided that its TOR is to be non-binding. Anyone who is interested in becoming a member of EXO should agree with the TOR, but they shall retain their inherent decision- making power and shall follow EXO’s decisions voluntarily. As non-binding instruments are often used in international relations to establish political commitments (U.S. Department of State, 2014), the TOR is expected to carry significant moral and political weight, especially for EXO’s National Members.

4.5.2 Compliance and Legal Instruments For EXO’s activities to be feasible, EXO must comply with the applicable international and national laws. EXO shall also consider using the appropriate legal instruments to increase its efficiency of activities.

4.5.2.1 Compliance to International EXO’s activities are broad and subject to international and national laws. EXO is composed of National Members (governmental entities) and Individual Members (non-governmental entities and individuals). National Members are subject to international law. International law “defines the legal responsibilities of States in their conduct with each other, and their treatment of individuals within State boundaries” (The United Nations, 2014). States impose their responsibilities under international law through national laws and practices. In this case, Individual Members will comply with international laws based on their national law and regulation.

The major international law that EXO must comply with are the United Nations (UN) Treaties. Several UN Treaties in relation to space activities has been codified by the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space. Among those UN treaties, these UN treaties have particular importance in course of EXO’s activities; the Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies of 1967 ( Exoplanets Final Report Page 41

(OST)) (UNOOSA, 1967), the Agreement on the Rescue of , the Return of Astronauts and the Return of Objects Launched into Outer Space of 1968 () (the Convention on International Liability for Damage Caused by Space Objects of 1972 (Liability Convention) ) (United Nations, 1972), and the Convention on Registration of Objects Launched into Outer Space of 1975 () (The United Nations, 2014). In addition to those space related UN treaties, the State ratified the OST must carry on “activities in the exploration and use of outer space in accordance with international law, including the Charter of the United Nations” (OST, Article 3) (UNOOSA, 1967).

EXO’s principle to coordinate an exoplanetary science mission and share discoveries globally meets the first principle of the OST, “the exploration and use of outer space shall be carried out for the benefit and in the interests of all countries and shall be the province of all mankind” (OST Article 1).

As for responsibility, under the OST and the Liability Convention, the States associated with EXO’s activities can be responsible for national space activities whether carried out by governmental or non- governmental entities (UNOOSA, 1967, and United Nations, 1972). Under the Outer Space Treaty, and the Liability Convention, States are responsible for all space objects that are launched within their territory or facility (even if the facility is abroad) along with foreign launches they procure, making a State liable for damages that result from that space object (United Nations, 1972). The Rescue Agreement states that a State party to the treaty shall provide assistance to rescue and return the spacecraft and the personnel of a spacecraft landed within its territory. Therefore, if the UniQuE satellite lands in a State party to the Rescue Agreement, that State must assist the search and rescue operation as needed. Claims based upon these treaties are between sovereign States, so even if damage has occurred by any EXO activities such as damage by a space object for the UniQuE mission, a claim will not be made against EXO. However, as National Members are governmental agencies, they must follow those treaties if their government has ratified those treaties. Plus, the States often supervise those treaties by domestic law and national legal regimes such as licensing and domestic registration. Hence, EXO and its Members will comply with those treaties. In the same time, the above-mentioned of international laws make EXO unable to make a claim against a State, but through working with its National Members, or appropriate country such as EXO’s domiciling country.

The Registration Convention requests that member states conducting space launches provide the UN with information on their launchings (The United Nations, 2014). Consequently, if the State of a UniQuE participant has ratified or acceded the Registration Convention, the State is obliged to register the UniQuE satellite with the UN. Often, the State has national laws making the registration a legal responsibility. EXO, as a respectable international organization, should include the responsibility to register the spacecraft for its mission accordingly when making a call for participants.

In conclusion, EXO not only needs to comply with those national laws implementing UN treaties that are applicable to EXO, but it should clarify potential liabilities of parties and direct its Members and its mission participants to abide by those laws by individual agreement.

Other international binding law that EXO needs to comply is the International Telecommunication Union rules, such as the Constitution and Convention of ITU (ITU, 2010)and related radio regulations (ITU, 2012). Since UniQuE and EXO’s follow-on missions involve satellite operations, it is important to follow those ITU rules regarding to use of the radio spectrum and assigning of satellite orbits (The International Telecommunication Union, 2014). The States ratified the Constitution and Convention of ITU must abide these ITU rules (Article 31 of Constitution and Convention of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU, 2011), so same consideration as the UN treaties apply to the ITU rules. [CJ2] Thus many countries enforce the ITU rules to respective parties by national laws, regulations, and through supervision, authorization, and licensing. EXO needs to take appropriate actions in case any of those are applicable to EXO, as well as directing its Members to ensure their responsibility to follow. Exoplanets Final Report Page 42

4.5.2.2 National Regulation - Export Control There are many other legal implications that EXO has to face. In this subsection, export control, one of the major implications casted by national laws, is introduced.

EXO and its Members may have to deal with export control regulation in the course of carrying out a mission or an activity. Export controls are usually imposed by a domestic law, since it is to protect technology, industrial and military primacy of such nation. An example of such export control legislation is the United States International Traffic in Arms Regulation (ITAR), that restricts the transfer of high technology items and items of a military nature mainly used for protecting the geopolitical, strategic, and economic advantages of the States (US GPO, 2012). Since many space-related technologies are dual-use and thus subject to such controls, EXO and its Members need to be conscious whether technologies in use are subject to any export controls. Due to those restrictions, sometimes the EXO mission may only feasible by using the substitutive technologies that are not regulated by respective export controls. Yet, for future, EXO may have to consider of lobbying to take those technologies off the munitions lists from each export controls for greater access and better sharing of information across the world.

The export controls are not the only legal implications associated with data and information sharing, and those data-related legal perspectives are discussed in Section Data Handling and Data Policy4.6.

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4.5.3 Economic Consideration EXO is a non-profit organization, but it does not inhibit private entities and space emerging countries from making investments towards its activities.

Private companies are willing to invest in non-profit organizations to increase total knowledge in a specific technical field if global information is not mature. Furthermore, companies have specific percentage donation quotas they try to meet. Aerospace companies donate to minority non-profit or organizations on a regular basis. Wealthy individuals donate money and act as philanthropists to create a legacy. A good example of this is the Gates Foundation. (Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, 2014; Khan Academy, 2014)

Currently, many space-related organizations and missions deem public donation as a way to get funding (, 2014 (Space Foundation, 2013), ExploreMars, 2014 (ExploreMars, 2014) and some of them were successfully funded (Hildebrandt, 2012; Carroll, 2014). These exhibit continuing interest of people in space projects. As exoplanetary science inspires people from all over the world, it is a great area to make an investment for the total knowledge of humankind. EXO's broad range of activities makes people easier to relate; possible donators are any individuals or entities that wish to make a difference in in how human view ourselves by developing exoplanetary science, technology, and education; equipping teachers to teach even more effectively and motivating students to learn about exoplanets; or international collaboration that inspire humans to dream and explore.

Plus, a space program is often pursued in developing countries as mean of demonstrating national prestige (SHACKELFORD, 2012). Emerging space countries will invest to create a new relationship in a technical field that they want to gain knowledge. Being associated with organizations like NASA, ESA, and JAXA provides National prestige and technical legitimacy. They also may feel that the new developed technology area will create a new industry in their country and create new jobs as well as exciting there students to stay in school to get a better education.

Though EXO’s sub-branch, CMP, considers technology development and potential spin-offs arising from exoplanet missions, EXO’s principle is to share the mission’s economic outcome freely. For example, spin-off from any affiliated technology is to be “inventor owned” (refer to 4.5 subsection for intellectual property) and EXO will not gain any economic benefit. Yet, EXO’s activities may result in great economic impact. One such example has been demonstrated in Nigeria, that Nigerian space program has shown space activities in Nigeria have promoted capacity building and development. (John, 2009) Hence, sharing knowledge or resources for building and launching satellites for EXO’s missions can result in the sprouting and growth of space industries in presently non-space faring states.

4.6 DATA HANDLING AND DATA POLICY During its activities, EXO will handle many kinds of data. In this section, three main kinds of data will be the subject of discussion. These are:

(1) Exoplanetary data from existing database (2) UniQuE satellite data (3) Data produced by EXO

First, exoplanetary data from existing database means data owned by other organizations and used by EXO to create its database, the “Extended Extrasolar Planets Encyclopedia” (EEPE). The current state of existing exoplanet database and the creation of EEPE, and related activities such as collection of data, data processing, and legal considerations will be discussed in 4.6.1. Exoplanets Final Report Page 44

Second, UniQuE satellite data is the data gathered by the UniQuE satellites and associated with the UniQuE mission. It will be owned by each UniQuE satellite owner (participant of the mission), so EXO has to make sure that each participant agrees to EXO’s policy on such data in terms of sharing and exclusivity period.

Third, policy for data produced by EXO, such as technical data associated with the UniQuE satellite requirements and configuration, and EXO’s intellectual property policy are explained, showing EXO’s open data approach.

4.6.1 Existing Exoplanet Data and “The Extended Extrasolar Planets Encyclopedia”

4.6.1.1 The Current State of Exoplanet Databases Space and ground telescopes provide raw astronomical data that researcher’s process and analyze. Their results are published in peer-reviewed journals and distributed in the exoplanet community, feeding the various databases existing across the World Wide Web and managed by astronomical research institutions. There are, to date, 1811 confirmed exoplanets and over 4,000 extrasolar planet candidates (Akeson, 2014).

Three major databases are “The Extrasolar Planets Encyclopedia (EPE)” (Schneider, 2011), the “NASA Exoplanet Archive (EA)” (Akeson, 2014), and the “Exoplanet Orbit Database” (Wright, et al., 2011). Two additional ‘niche’ databases are “Exoplanet Transit Database” (Poddany, 2009), and “Amateur Exoplanet Archive” (Gary, 2014). These databases complement each other by having different, self- declared scopes fulfilling varying research purposes. The major databases have three types of user interface: 1. An exoplanet page that provides all the data available, including exoplanet, host star and orbit characteristics (with measurement errors), as well as detection scenario (method, observatory, researcher, and ) and a link to all publications related to the exoplanet. 2. A table of exoplanets that allows listing and screening of the exoplanets by name, characteristics, or detection scenario. 3. A visual interface that provides plot tools to display exoplanet population in scatter diagrams or histograms.

The EPE is the most complete database of confirmed exoplanets. Like the other databases, it provides planet, star, and orbit characteristics. In addition it lists observed chemical composition of planetary atmospheres and their respective publications. Similarly to the other databases, the EPE relies on publications as its main source of information and links each exoplanet to its published papers. The EPE also holds a database of both ground-based and spaceborne exoplanetary research surveys, as well as a list of upcoming relevant meetings to be held by the astronomical community. EPE is available in eight languages, allowing access to a broad group of exoplanetary researchers, educators, and amateurs.

The EA provides extensive data on some planets, but only covers the major ground-based and spaceborne exoplanet surveys (such as Kepler, CoRoT, and SuperWASP). The database provides both a list of confirmed exoplanets and a database of raw data. Confirmed exoplanets are presented in the three types of interface mentioned above (planet page, adjustable table and visual tool). For transiting planets, the EA provides estimated future transit. Raw data is presented in the form of recorded light curves, and includes data for both confirmed exoplanets, accessible from the planet pages, and the other objects of interest, including unconfirmed exoplanets. The EA exoplanet pages also provide links to relevant publications and to the other two major databases, EPE and EOD Exoplanets Final Report Page 45

The EOD provides robust data regarding known exoplanet orbits, and conversely holds no data on candidate exoplanets. The EOD provides the three interfaces mentioned above, as well as links to planet pages in the other databases and publications. NASA’s EA is mentioned as a primary source for data in the EOD.

The Exoplanet Transit Database (ETD) lists several hundred exoplanets observable from ground-based observatories. It hosts a global effort called TRansiting ExoplanetS and CAndidates (TRESCA) in which small, university observatories record their exoplanet transit light curves. Exoplanets are presented in a simple list which allows access to exoplanet transit pages that provide an extensive schedule of future transits. Raw data, including light curve recordings and an image of the host star, is also provided on each transit page. The ETD is linked to the Amateur Exoplanet Archive (AXA) that provides a list of exoplanets that amateur astronomers can observe, record, and submit to the ETD. AXA also presents raw data in the form of light curves and host star images.

Several applications for mobile devices are available and provide visual tools aimed at the general public. One application that should be noted is “Exoplanet” by Hanno Rein, which uses a database managed by its author (Hanno, 2014). “Exoplanet” has a visual tool which presents an exoplanet’s orbit around its host star in their galactic location, relative to the Earth. The application also provides extensive information on each exoplanet in both written and visual forms.

4.6.1.2 “The Extended Extrasolar Planets Encyclopedia” EXO will promote the establishment of EEPE as a comprehensive exoplanet database. EXO will work with the owners of existing databases to merge them into a joint database that will utilize the existing infrastructure while introducing more data-fields and data sources to the database. EEPE will use all available sources and observations to provide the most complete list of extrasolar planets known. New data-fields, links to other databases, and raw data will be easily added to the database. The rationale behind proposing EEPE is to maximize the utilization of existing infrastructure by making data more easily accessible and in a common format.

1. Relationship to existing data base The EEPE will begin by combining data from the other databases with citations to the original source. The EEPE will negotiate the establishment of database interfaces to allow for data flow between the EEPE, EA, EOD, and ETD. It is important that the data be logged in the EEPE as opposed to being linked from the other databases to provide the ability to draft a single table that holds the most complete data on exoplanets. This table could then be used to perform comprehensive statistical analysis on the exoplanet population.

2. Collect, Process, Post Process, Disseminate The EEPE will collect exoplanet data from scientific publications to add to the database by drafting a form based on its data-fields and promoting its use by researchers as they process and publish new exoplanet data. The researchers will be requested to either submit the form directly to the EEPE (via the website or email) or attach it to their publication.

The EEPE will also negotiate with research teams and space agencies leading exoplanet surveys, such as Kepler K2, TESS, PLATO, TRESCA, and SuperWASP, to receive raw data files of both confirmed exoplanets and objects of interest. These data files will be introduced to the database in accordance to each survey’s protocols, while acknowledging the source of data. The data generated by the UniQuE mission will be introduced to the EEPE as it is being processed and published by the mission research team. Each data packet acquired by the mission will be distributed to the research team and will have six-month exclusivity for processing and publishing before it is Exoplanets Final Report Page 46

introduced as raw data to the EEPE. Six months of data exclusivity is chosen as reward to the UniQuE participants to have prioritized access to the data as well as to ensure proper calibration of the data before lease. In special cases, where more time is necessary for the research team, delay requests will be discussed by the EEPE and UniQuE mission leads. When all members of the research team have declared the science return is fully met from a data packet the raw data will be uploaded to the database.

Data produced by amateur input will be introduced to the EEPE as it is processed by a designated research team. The raw data will be uploaded via the EXO outreach website, which will be accessible from the EEPE website. Once the data is examined by the designated research team it will be uploaded to the database as it is being processed.

The EEPE website will allow for basic post processing and statistical analysis by its visual interfaces. For more elaborate post processing the database will allow data to be downloadable in common formats, such as plain text and spreadsheets, so that a user can download selected data-fields or whole tables. As mentioned, raw data can also be examined or downloaded. Researchers, amateurs and educators will be able to register to the database and receive updates via email at fixed time intervals. During registration users can flag specific data-fields parameters and receive live updates if new data is introduced to them. Access to the database will be free as the data is declared public domain.

4.6.1.3 Field Description, New Fields, and Data Quality The EEPE will keep all basic fields that the EPE holds to date along with additional fields in order to provide the most complete exoplanet database. The additional data fields might not be complete at the beginning of EEPE but indicate information that could and should be available in the future. The EEPE will include the following data-fields:  Exoplanet estimated physical properties (mass, radius, density, surface temperature, surface gravity)  Exoplanet estimated classification (such as Earth-like, Super-Earth, Jupiter-like, Hot-Jupiter, Exo-moon, Free floating planets)  Exoplanet atmospheric readings (type of molecules found and their proportion)  Exoplanet estimated orbital parameters  Registered radio signals from planet (frequencies, patterns) (new to EEPE)  Location of the host  Estimated properties of the star system (type of system, types of stars, masses, radii, age, temperatures, luminosity magnitudes, chemical compositions, other related planets) (new to EEPE)  First detection scenario (method, year, observatory, detecting team) and additional detections (method, year, observatory, detecting team)  For transiting exoplanets a list of future transit estimated epochs will be included (new to EEPE)  All known names of the planet and host system  Links to all available publications and data pages from other databases  Links to visual tools described  Links to all raw data available on the EEPE or from other databases

The EEPE will also present raw data for other objects of interest in a database according to the lists provided by the various detection surveys. All data-fields will include the estimated errors and adhere to the current EPE policy (Schneider, 2011), for data reliability (false positive possibility lower than 5%). All data legally and technically available will be inputted to the database, while the most accurate (smallest errors) will be presented, users can exclude types of data sources when plotting data outputs.

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The data-fields new to the EPE described here are:  Chemical proportion in exoplanet atmosphere  Exoplanet estimated classification  Radio signals  Type of star system  Transit times  Link to raw data  Object of interest raw data database

These new data-fields may not be filled at the beginning of EEPE but they indicate information that can and should be available in the future. For example, transit times are important for the UniQuE mission when the satellites’ schedules are made. Another example is logging radio signals from exoplanets as suggested by Rucker in 2002 (Rucker, 2002).

The objects included in the database will be according to the current EPE policy -generally objects below 25 Jupiter mass. Exotic objects like exo- and free floating planets will be included in the database and flagged as such. The EEPE will include retracted exoplanets in its database, as has been done in the EPE. Both inclusion criteria and exoplanet classification will be reexamined as the exoplanetary research community discusses these issues.

A database of ground-based and space borne observatories will be introduced to the database. The database will present the observatories with sensor parameters (wavelength, resolution, and accuracy) and the observatories survey operations (orbit\location, duration, areas and subjects of interest). It will also provide links to the observatories pages, research teams, and publications related to their surveys. This type of database will assist in processing of raw data from the observatories and assist researchers in finding collaborative research partners around the globe.

4.6.2 Database Interfaces The EEPE will provide the three types of interfaces described in 0 together with an additional visual option. The four key interfaces are: 1. An individual page for each exoplanet presenting all data and links according to the data-fields described. 2. An interactive table tool allowing for field (column) selection, exoplanet (raw) rating by field, and changeable units (e.g. Earth/Jupiter mass/kg, Earth//km). The table tool will allow the tables created to be downloaded as data files, and/or exported to the graph plotter (for graphic investigation of specific exoplanet populations). 3. An interactive graph plotter will allow for plotting 2D and 3D histograms and scatter plots according to any data-field in the database. Additional information can be presented using color and shape marking. The tool will allow the user for overlay of identical plots by axis with different populations. 4. EXO will promote linking of the database to existing visual sky interfaces (such as GoogleSky, Stellarium, WorldWideTelescope) which present celestial bodies on a virtual sky . The data layers will present basic information regarding the exoplanet (type, distance, artist impression if available) and will be linked to the exoplanet page on the database.

The database will be accessible from mobile devices.

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4.6.3 Legal Implication Related to Rreating the Extended Extrasolar Planets Encyclopedia One purpose of EXO is to optimize the usage of existing exoplanetary data by combining current databases. The EEPE will combine data from multiple databases by storing data from those databases, however, it will not claim any right, such as copyright of an exoplanet image, from the original owner. Thus in creating the EEPE, EXO will handle data while complying with policies of the current databases. If necessary, EXO shall take any necessary steps to share non-EXO information through contracting an agreement or obtaining permission from the entity that owns the database.

The Infrared Processing and Analysis Center (IPAC) owns the web sites for the EPE, which states that any images and video “may be used for any purpose without prior permission” (NASA, 2014) (NASA, 2014). On the other hand, written permission is requested to be obtained by the “Exoplanet Orbit Database” to use their data. This database uses data from multiple databases such as NASA's Astrophysics Data System (ADS) and 2MASS. ADS requires that articles and abstracts from ADS can be used solely for personal use, and redistribution of copies is forbidden.If EXO is going to store such articles and abstracts on the EEPE, EXO needs to formulate agreements with the appropriate copyright owners. EXO will also need to know if there is conditional use of original data, such as citation limitations. The user of the EEPE respects and follows requests of the data owner. Despite complications with data policies, there is a global tendency to have open data policy for data obtained from space exploration missions, as seen in Kepler’s open data policy (JAXA, 2014; European Environment Agency, 2014). With growing support for open data policies, the creation of the EEPE to strengthen exoplanetary data accessibility around the world should be approved by scientific communities owning said data. It is important that EXO clarify that we do not control or guarantee the accuracy, relevance, timeliness, or completeness of information contained on the EEPE.

4.6.4 The UniQuE Data - Data Policy In this section, the term UniQuE data refers to the raw data and processed data obtained from the UniQuE satellites and is associated with the UniQuE mission. Because each UniQuE satellite is owned by different participants, the UniQuE data from a satellite shall be owned by the participant that owns the satellite. All data is to be shared among all UniQuE participants and EXO. All UniQuE data, after the six month data exclusivity period shall be stored in the EEPE and released to the public. As part of terms and condition for participation in the UniQuE Program each participant shall agree to EXO’s policy on data sharing, exclusivity period, and data release. Data obtained by a UniQuE satellite but not associated with the UniQuE mission is out of scope of these terms and conditions. When releasing the UniQuE data from the EEPE, it is important to clarify that EXO does not control or guarantee the accuracy, relevance, timelines, or completeness of the UniQuE data. EXO shall follow open data policy similar to the EPE for data release. The data can also be used to engage the public by appearing on commercial items.

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4.6.5 Other Data - Technical Data and Intellectual Property 1. Technical Data and Intellectual Property EXO will be entitled to rights associated with technical data and IP, such as the UniQuE satellite configuration data or copyright of papers published using UniQuE data.

At its highest level, EXO will have an open policy for data and IP. That is, EXO will make data and IP available, discoverable, and usable. EXO shall not pursue claims against any third-person’s usage of said data and IP because it accepts an inventor owned IP policy, in which, title and ownership of all IP shall reside in the party or parties who invented or created the IP. EXO embraces the philosophy that providing incentive through IP ownership is the best motivator to ensure that exoplanetary research occurs for broad international, societal, and economic benefit. This IP management approach will comply with relevant export control regimes, while accommodating the transfer of technology and scientific data. In taking this approach, EXO hopes to create economic opportunity and improve citizens’ quality of life, similar to the way in which public release of weather and GPS has done (PROJECT OPEN DATA, 2014).

2. Logo EXO’s open data policy shall have few exemptions. One typical exemption is the copyright for the EXO logo. The EXO logo shall not be used in articles or products, including Web pages, which are not related to EXO.

4.7 OUTREACH AND EDUCATION

4.7.1 Introduction The outreach and education branch of EXO is designed to increase the excitement and participation of the public who are interested space and would like to be part of the exoplanet community. There are three main target groups for EXO’s outreach and education efforts: the general public, educational institutions, and amateur astronomers.

4.7.2 General public Figure 21 shows an increasing number of search requests related to exoplanets on Google since 2004. The field of exoplanets has become popular among the general public because it sparks amazement to imagine Earth-like planets orbiting these small bright dots we see in the sky at night. EXO has a duty to expand educational outreach on this topic, and generate new interest in exoplanet investigations and discoveries. EXO, to the best of its ability, shall reach out to the global population, regardless of perceived distinguishing characteristics such as age, social status, culture, or gender.

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Figure 21: Google Trend analysis for “exoplanet(s)” and “Super Earth” search requests since 2004. Letters indicate correlating media coverage of the topic.

EXO will advocate for the presence of exoplanet-related content in planetariums and science museums. Such facilities have the capacity to evoke a sense of shared wonder between children and parents. This wonder provokes intellectually stimulating questions about space. How far is the nearest star? How long would it take to go there? What if there were people living on a planet similar to Earth there?

EXO’s website is the primary platform of digital media outreach and education (EXO, 2014). In addition to the website, EXO shall maintain a well-curated presence on certain social media outlets such as Facebook (Facebook, 2014) and (Twitter, 2014). One potential method of increasing public engagement via these platforms is a public contest, such as suggesting a name for a satellite. EXO shall pay particular attention to Search Engine Optimization to ensure it appears on the front page of the most popular search engines and provide translations in various languages. As illustrated on Figure 21, analytics have shown that public media, such as films, journal articles, and art shows, generate a surge in internet searches on a topic and EXO will make use of this media to generate further interest.

4.7.3 Schools and Educators Previous studies from ISU show the importance of space-related topics in garnering interest for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education (Team Project STEM, 2012). EXO promote STEM in classrooms around the world by engaging students and teachers in exoplanetary research. In order to facilitate this learning, EXO will develop a series of educational tools to be used independently or in-conjunction with the organization’s resources, such as taking advantage of EXO’s database.

A 2010 study published in the Astronomy Education Review stressed the benefits of interactive learning strategies in dramatically improving the response of non-science major students in the United States, regardless of gender, ethnicity, primary language, and previous STEM experience (Rudolph, 2010).To aid teachers in introducing the concept of exoplanets to students, EXO will formulate a series of freely accessible, hands-on lesson plans and workshops for all age groups. These materials will cover a broad range of topics ranging from “What is an Exoplanet?” to “How can we use spectroscopy to understand the make-up of atmospheres?” In a similar structure to that of NASA’s Museum in a Box lessons, EXO’s resources will be available for download, outlining materials and methodology to conduct easy workshops Exoplanets Final Report Page 51

in the classroom. (NASA, 2014). These lesson plans and workshops will cover basic scientific topics that can be applied to other fields, such as: introduction to optics; galaxy, star, and planet formation; biological markers; and foundations of . This approach is already popular among teachers of all age groups as demonstrated by various publications in education-related journals all over the world and EXO will make sure it includes such references properly. (Ros, 2008; George, 2011; Cowley, 2014) In addition, EXO will encourage the use of these materials for extracurricular activities including science clubs and camps.

As an international organization, EXO has the unique capability of connecting experts and agencies with classrooms. Through use of our network, we will create a system where educators can request a variety of different speakers to visit their school. This will give students the opportunity to meet leading scientists and engineers in the field of exoplanetary research, fostering interest in the subject at a young age. Furthermore, teachers will be connected to local facilities, such as educational institutions or observatories involved in EXO that may be willing to host field trips for students. For more remote locations, EXO can assign travelling teachers to connect with these schools.

EXO will make use of the most active online forums to connect with students and teachers. For example, some of the most successful innovations of the video website Youtube have been educational videos such as Khan Academy, Minutephysics, and Crashcourse. (Google, 2014; Green, 2014; Khan Academy, 2014; Reich, 2014) Online videos are extremely useful tools for education; they are widely available, visual, concise, and re-useable. EXO will utilize this forum to create supplementary learning resources to our workshop and lesson materials. These videos will be highly engaging and cover the basic topics of exoplanetary research along with links to more advanced material.

A 2014 study published in Education Sciences suggests that higher education students’ exposure to long- duration technical projects such as small spacecraft development is beneficial to their learning process (Straub, 2014). EXO’s outreach to higher education institutions promotes this finding through two categories of student engagement: 1. Involvement in the UniQuE mission 2. Ground-based astronomy involving larger existing observatories or smaller telescopes similar to the equipment used by amateur astronomers

This two-pronged approach will enable these institutions to have a long-term perspective and participate in large-scale programs while also giving them the opportunity to jump right in with the less expensive ground-based observation options. This will give some flexibility regarding the amount of investment an institution is willing to commit to the study of exoplanets.

EXO will encourage educational institutions to collaborate with the international community and provide mission support in non-spacefaring nations and emerging space communities. This will provide the educational institutions with much needed experience in spacecraft design and introduce them to a network of support. This will also benefit the wider exoplanet community as the gaps in exoplanet confirmation and characterization can be filled more rapidly. These institutions can utilize more affordable resources to achieve their specific scientific goals.EXO will set the mission requirements. The educational institutions have the freedom to create their own unique design to meet the requirements; however, EXO can also provide design assistance.

The aim of the UniQuE mission will be to characterize exoplanets using the transit method and contribute to filling the gaps in the exoplanet database, as described in Section 4.5.3. A secondary aim of the mission is to be a catalyst for international collaboration among institutions, as satellites from different educational institutions will form a constellation and will work together to accelerate the characterization of exoplanets. Exoplanets Final Report Page 52

Educational institutions not looking to design a spacecraft can also participate in UniQuE by using current ground based observatories to perform observation of exoplanets. Transit, microlensing, and radial velocity methods can be used from ground observatories to complete some characterization and detection of exoplanets. This will be a faster and more cost-effective way to contribute to the exoplanet community as compared to going through the design process of creating a new satellite. Institutions can also purchase high-end telescopes to involve interested students more directly in order to perform the aforementioned observations. These options give educational institutions multiple methods of filling in the gaps in the database. By involving more people, exoplanets can be discovered and confirmed faster, addressing the issue of the thousands of unconfirmed Kepler planets awaiting further study.

The participating institutions will have exclusive rights to their UniQuE mission data for a period of time to ensure they have first opportunity to publish findings. The data will then be released publicly and added to the exoplanet database and registered. Data found by other means can be kept by the educational institutions until they wish to release the data; however it would be preferred for them to add it to the exoplanet database.

4.7.4 Amateur Astronomers EXO will work to engage the large amateur astronomer community that exists around the globe. This community is a valuable resource, able to produce large amounts of useful scientific data for detection and characterization of exoplanets, if managed well. EXO will provide tools and resources to facilitate their work and sharing processes, and centralize the data generated in the database structure.

Amateur astronomer outreach will take the form of online resources used to coordinate the community’s research efforts. Local astronomy groups or individual observers will be able to register with EXO and gain access to our databases and up-to- date research material. In return for this access, members will be expected, but not obligated, to perform some research of their own.

A Charged Couple Device (CCD) camera can be attached to the eyepiece of a telescope and then connected to a computer to guide the observation. This can then be used to collect photometric data from stars or other celestial bodies. An amateur astronomer with a computer, a sufficiently stable motorized mount, and a CCD detector can participate in exoplanet hunting. The light curves of stars may indicate the presence of a transiting planet. The method to gather this data is quite straightforward and, provided they have the suitable equipment, can be done by almost all amateur astronomers (Morris, 2013).

To aid new astronomers, or those new to imaging the sky, a full ‘how to’ guide will be created. This guide will include some suggested equipment which can be sponsored by telescope manufacturers who will want to be associated with the EXO campaign. In order to get their products featured on the website, these manufacturers will sponsor EXO and help cover the costs for maintaining the online resources. Modern computerized mounts are used to keep the telescope tracked onto a celestial body during imaging. EXO, in partnership with the manufacturers of these mounts, will produce lists of targets that can be downloaded. When the user starts up their telescope they will be able to easily access suggested targets which are visible from their location at that time of the year. Such targets can already be found through the Amateur Exoplanet Archive (AXA), however by being able to deliver them in a user friendly way we aim to make it easier for people to get involved (Gary, 2014).

Software will also be available to help process the data which will be produced by the astronomers. This will build upon the current OSCAAR (Open Source differential photometry Code for Accelerating Amateur Research) project (OSCAAR, 2014). The OSCAAR software is capable of taking in data acquired by a CCD and producing light curves required by researchers to look for exoplanets. There is a current outreach program which uses crowdsourcing to characterize light curves which have Exoplanets Final Report Page 53

been collected from the Kepler Space Telescope to determine if they may indicate the presence of exoplanets. This website, called (PlanetHunters, 2014), takes just five minutes to teach the user how to interpret the data and then gives them access to the Kepler database. This technique is, in theory, much better than computer algorithms as has already been shown by the experiment (Baehr, 2010). By crowdsourcing the task it can be split up several thousand times, allowing for relatively quick processing of vast amounts of data. This could be expanded so that amateurs could analyze their own and each other’s findings, which may lead to the discovery of a potential exoplanet by amateurs. These results would be verified by professionals in the EXO community.

EXO will then present the work done by amateurs with that done through the main organization itself, educational institutions, research institutes, and the wider community at an annual conference. This event, moving to a different participating country every year, will work to grow the global community and encourage communication through all levels of research. This will allow amateurs to share their experiences and learn more about the higher-end technology as well as offer potential insight to others in the field. We will invite sponsors to sell products to amateurs, educational institutions to promote their work, and speakers to give updates and offer discussion on work being done in the exoplanet field.

EXO will produce a quarterly publication, summarizing the work that has been accomplished in the previous quarter and offer the opportunity for amateur astronomers and experts to publish on the subject of exoplanetary research.

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5. PROPOSED EXOPLANET MISSION

The EXO will seek to initiate its global involvement in the field of exoplanets with a space observation mission. This mission will provide a platform for EXO members and emerging spacefaring nations in which scientists, engineers, and educators will share knowledge and expertise to perform an exoplanet exploration mission that will broaden humanity's understanding of the universe. EXO’s mission will fill the gap described in Section 2.4 concerning the lack of exoplanet observation missions planned for the late 2010s and early 2020s that characterize exoplanet atmospheres

5.1 MISSION RATIONALE

5.1.1 Science Rationale As described in Section 2.0, there are many missions, both existing and planned, to detect and confirm exoplanets. Many candidate exoplanets have been identified by these missions and some of them have been verified, but this data must be analyzed further. The scientific community is highly interested in the characterization of verified exoplanets. Atmospheric analysis and bioindicator detection is a relatively unexplored, emerging field of research, which constitutes a real gap in our knowledge that can only be filled by implementing a new mission. With this mission, we can: 1. help science and technology move forward in numerous fields, including detection methods, planet characterization, statistical methodologies, optics and specialist spacecraft payloads, solar and formation, and potential indicators of life 2. gain a better understanding of the galaxy, look for answers to some of humankind's most challenging questions: typically, where did we come from, are we alone, what’s our future (questions once asked by and Epicurus) 3. accumulate experience in international collaboration and operational techniques to support future research

5.1.2 International Collaboration Rationale This mission will be an international collaboration, which brings with it many benefits: 1. A decreases in cost by brought forth by collaboration with partners, as doing so avoids redundant investments and shares the work load 2. An increase in mission stability which increases the likelihood of the mission going forward. This in turn increases the economic benefits, such as employment, over its duration 3. New technology that will be developed for this mission will be openly shared with the international community, promoting spin offs 4. Earn national prestige through cooperation 5. Field specific knowledge will be increased as institutes work together and share their results with the global community 6. International cooperation in space exploration missions is "a contribution of sustained peaceful international cooperation on a grand scale for the benefit of everyone on the planet" (Human, 2014) Exoplanets Final Report Page 55

5.1.3 Engineering Rationale The mission led by EXO will consist of a cost-effective small satellite constellation. The decision to use a space borne platform is based on the scientific question that EXO wishes to answer with this mission— what is the chemical composition of an exoplanet’s atmosphere? To answer this question, the science instrument observing the exoplanet atmosphere needs to be located where the Earth’s atmosphere will not interfere with the sensor measurements. A space-borne instrument has the following advantages: 1. The instrument performances are not attenuated by the Earth’s atmosphere. 2. The Earth atmosphere is opaque a certain wavelengths, especially in the infrared part of the spectrum where the chemical components we wish to detect have most of their signature. 3. Long observations can be done as there are no day and night cycle. 4. In picking the relevant orbit, the thermal environment in space can be very stable. The structure and the instrument housing may be exposed to a smaller temperature gradient over their lifetime The chemical composition of the exoplanet atmosphere can be detected by identifying the absorption lines in the electromagnetic spectrum. To accurately identify the atmospheric composition of the exoplanet atmosphere, the spectrometer, must be sensitive over a frequency range that can capture the absorption lines of the chemical compounds of interest. A spectrometer is designed for splitting ight in different wavelengths for their analysis.

5.2 MISSION REQUIREMENTS UniQuE is a science mission which aims to investigate the atmospheric characterization of identified and confirmed exoplanets using spectroscopic measurements as it transits its host star. With the aid of highly sensitive instruments it is possible to determine the chemical compounds which can be found in the observed atmosphere. This data can be used to further research on Extra-Solar planets and planetary formation.

5.2.1 Scientific Requirements When defining mission requirements for characterizing the atmospheric composition of an already- verified exoplanet, it is useful to re-examine the scientific and technological challenges associated with the discovery and identification of an exoplanet. The data which comes from detection missions such as Kepler or TESS is important when performing analysis on the atmospheric composition of exoplanets.

As discussed in Section 2.2, the identification and estimation of various parameters used for characterizing an exoplanet, such as its mass and orbital parameters, is possible by measuring the apparent reflex motion of the host star. The time dependence of the measured reflex motion yields the orbital parameters of the planet, while the amplitude of the observed effect is proportional to the mass of the planet. This information, combined with a predetermined value for the mass of the star, could provide the mass of the planet following Kepler’s laws of planetary motion (Schmid & Todorov, 2014). Astronomers have established a number procedures for measuring the reflex motion of a star based on knowledge of two body systems: these procedures include radial velocity (RV), astrometric motion (AM), and pulsar and transit time residual (PAT). The uncertainty which is associated with these methods mainly comes from the basic measurement precision of the space or ground based instrument. (Schmid & Todorov, 2014; Karttunen, et al., 2007). This uncertainty has already been detailed in Section 2.2.

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5.2.2 Mission Theory UniQuE is a science mission to characterize the atmospheres of exoplanets using the Transit method as described in Section 2.2. Highly accurate measurements are required to characterize the atmosphere of the exoplanets and identify possible bioindicators.

Analysis of the upper atmosphere of the planet can be done from the measurement of irradiance observed from Earth during the transit of an exoplanet in front of its host star. The irradiance received is composed of radiant flux from the host star (Fs) and the target exoplanet (Fp). The total irradiance which is received varies greatly over the duration of the transit event, it is this variation which we aim to observe and analyze. Intrinsically, both Fs and Fp exhibit their maximum decline during the transit as well as during any secondary eclipses. The normalized received radiant flux in visible wavelengths is primarily a function of attenuation caused by the chemical compounds within the exoplanet atmosphere. It is then possible to take this information and derive the atmospheric composition of the planet (Swain, et al., 2008; Swain, et al., 2009; Madhusudhan, 2009) Further observations within the thermal infrared band will also show the exoplanet clearly when compared to the host star. The IR irradiance which is observed can also be interpreted as the function of exoplanet atmospheric composition. (Schmid, 2014; Karttunen, et al., 2007)

Normally, two techniques are used for the purpose of determining atmospheric composition: photometry (in the visible band) and infrared radiometry (in the infrared band). Since the exoplanets are located several light years (LY) away from the observation station, the signals are very weak, and this effect is exacerbated further when using the IR end of the spectrum. Our proposed mission will demand a sensitive instrument behind a telescope with an aperture as large as feasible in order to measure such signals and retrieve meaningful scientific data (Nathan, 2013). Table 3 provides a list of bioindicator molecules in the Earth's atmosphere and their absorption bands in visible and infrared regions. If we assume that our target planet is Earth-like, then we must seek-out the signatures of such molecules in the atmospheres of exoplanets. When designing the telescope for detecting these molecules, we must keep in mind the characteristic spectral bands. There is no one single spectral band which is solely the function of single a . Any received signal may be contributed by many factors; signatures from different molecules and background radiation could make this situation much more complicated. Thus, selective use of multiple narrow spectral bands, sensitivity, and retrieval of the true signal are the most challenging issues facing the design. The signal to noise ratio (SNR) and angular resolving power ( ) are two key parameters that generally define the sensitivity of an instrument. In most practical purpose, the detection of exoplanets with an IR telescope demands an SNR in the range of 5 to 10 and a resolving power of at least 105 (Sanna et al., 2014). For characterizing the atmospheric composition higher values for SNR and R are required.

Table 3: Bioindicators in the Earth’s atmosphere and their associated absorption bands in the visible and infrared electromagnetic (EM) sprectra (Rothman, et al., 2009)

Molecules H2O CO2 O3 O2 N2O CH4 CO NO2

2.7, 4.3, 4.74, 1.58, 4.5, 3.3, 4.67, 3-5 1.87, 2.7, 3.3, 1.27, 4.06, 2.20, 2.34 1.38, 2.0, 1.06, 2.87 1.66 Absorption at 1.1, 1.6, 0.76, wavelength (µm) 0.94, 1.4 0.69, 0.82, 0.63 0.72

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5.2.3 Mission Requirements The scientific requirements of the mission are summarized in Table 4. We formulated these requirements using the example of a specific target exoplanet, GJ180b, a terrestrial exoplanet located almost 13 LY from our earth. It has a surface temperature of 312 K, a size 2.3 times of the Earth, and an of 0.75 ( Laboratory , 2014). The payload configuration for a science mission should be designed to measure the IR energy coming from the host star, which is distinct from the background IR emission and system noise.

Engineering requirements for the unique mission are summarized in Table 5. The mission requirements are meant to provide the performance needs for the system, not to constrain the design solution and define the design state. The design is implemented to meet these performance requirements.

Table 4: Technical specification of IR telescope (payload) for the mission requirement based on analysis and Table 6.2 of (Schmid & Todorov, 2014) Title Requirement Notes and Justification

Sensitivity The system shall be able to to measure measure 10-9 -10-8 Wm-2 energy energy flux from the exoplanet at thermal band wave length 0.6- 5 micro m with spectral resolution of 10 nm.

SNR As a goal, the system should The purpose of this requirement is for the system be able to have a SNR greater than100. As to distinguish exoplanet signal from background thermal a requirement, the system shall noise and system noise have a SNR in the range of 5-10 based on frequency (TBC).

Resolving The resolving power of the To achieve this resolving power, the Inner Working Angle Power telescope shall be greater than (IWA) should be between 10 and 500 milli-arcseconds. 100 The IWA is defined as the smallest angle at which a planet can be detected.

Spectral As a goal, the instruments The goal spectral range of interest (Should requirement) Range should be sensitive to provides the ability to detect all of the desired wavelengths between 0.6 and 5 bioindicators: H20, CO2, O2, O3, CH4, CO, and N2O. The micrometers. instrument design team can implement narrower spectral ranges that identify bioindicators of, to reduce the size and As a requirement, the UniQuE scope of the instrument. The required spectral range of instrument shall, as a minimum interest (Shall requirement) will be able to detect all of the be sensitive to wavelengths required bioindicators: H20, CO2, and O2. It also provides between 0.9 and 2.5 partial absorption indicators for CH4, and CO. The micrometers. required spectral range does not provide absorption lines for O3 and N2O. The required spectral range was chosen as an example for the mission definition, and is based on the Hamamatsu C11118GA spectrometer (Hamamatsu, 2014). Alternate spectral ranges that identify bioindicator species of interest can be used by the instrument design team. Exoplanets Final Report Page 58

Table 5: Engineering requirements of mission operation Requirement Requirements Notes and Justification Title

Spacecraft orbit The spacecraft shall be in a The orbital inclination is to be paired to the altitude to Sun Synchronous Orbit at enable a sun synchronous orbit. The altitude range an altitude between 600 remains wide to allow for flexibility in choosing a and 1000 km. launch opportunity.

Period of The mission lifetime shall operation be 3.5 years

System The system shall image at This accounts for system availability, and planned and availability least 80% of the unplanned outages. observation opportunities proposed by EXO during the mission lifetime.

Launch Vehicle The system shall be Maintaining compatibility with secondary launch compatibility compatible with launch options (e.g.: Cubesat standard deployer systems) allows vehicle secondary payload for flexibility in choosing a launch opportunity. opportunities available for microsatellites

Instrument The instrument detector Various options can be implemented by design. For protection shall be protected from example, during normal operations, the system will not thermal radiative damage be pointed towards the Sun, the Earth, or the Moon. Alternatively a shutter can be included in the design

Data downlink As a goal, 100% of the The and spacecraft communication acquired science data subsystem will be designed to allow all science data to should be downlinked to be downlinked. the ground. e.g.: 2 kps data downlink (from a UHF antenna ) can As a requirement, 75% of easily handle the data volume of one orbit: 4*216bits and the acquired science data data rate = 4*216 bits / 600 sec ≈ 440 bps shall be downlinked to the Data rate per (Hamamatsu, 2014) ground.

Data storage EXO shall store all and distribution scientific data and make it available to the community.

Precaution for The UniQuE Mission Support of the IADC Space Debris Mitigation debris System shall conform to Guidelines, 5 October 2004, IADC WG4 (Inter-Agency the IADC’s voluntary Space Debris Coordination Committee, 2004) guidelines for spacecraft removal from LEO within 25 years after the end of mission.

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5.3 THE UNIQUE MISSION CONCEPT

5.3.1 The UniQuE Mission Statement The UniQuE is an international collaborative satellite mission, led by the EXO, which seeks to detect chemical compounds of interest in the atmospheres of exoplanets transiting in front of their host stars. With the UniQuE mission, EXO and partner institutions strive to introduce emerging spacefaring nations to the exploration of the universe and humanity's place in it.

5.3.2 Concept of Operations The UniQuE mission Concept of Operations (Con-Ops) is depicted Figure 22. Space-based survey, using existing space assets (e.g.: TESS) will identify candidates for exoplanets. The survey data will be available to use as part of the verification, and confirmation efforts conducted by the community. Verification of exoplanet candidates will occur using on the ground observatories and amateur telescopes.

The space segment includes the spacecrafts in the UniQuE satellite constellation. The constellation aims to detect pre-defined bioindicators in the atmospheres of transiting exoplanets. The constellation will observe selected transit events according to a schedule created by the mission ground segment and the UniQuE scientific research team, in accordance with the scientific rationale. The optimal design of the initial constellation calls for three satellite pairs. The spacecrafts will be positioned with a 120 degree phase difference in sun-synchronous LEO at a mean altitude of 600-1,000 km. The satellites within each pair will be equipped with sensors looking in different parts of the Electro Magnetic (EM) spectrum in order to maximize the spectral range of the data which is collected. Each member institute will perform satellite control and tracking by itself, and report the state of the satellite to EXO in real time. The payload data return will also be collected by the member institute and transferred to EXO in real time. As will be described in Section 5.3.3 the member institutes will be able to use their spacecraft for other scientific purposes in accordance with the constraints.

The UniQuE mission ground segment will be responsible for the successful mission operations of UniQuE. It will include a Mission Operations Centre (MOC), and a Science Operations Centre (SOC). The SOC will be responsible for defining the transit targets for atmospheric characterizations. The SOC will also be responsible to identify targets for verification using on-the-ground telescopes. The MOC will be responsible to feed the science targets to the UniQUe space segment. The MOC will be responsible for scheduling and managing access to ground stations for the uplink of commands to the spacecrafts, and the downlink of telemetry and, science data. The SOC will also be responsible for the generation of science data products to be disseminated to the science community, and for long term storage of science data.

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Figure 22: Concept of Operations

5.3.3 Target Determination and Resource Allocation The exoplanet targets that UniQuE observes will be selected according to the following criteria:  The size and mass of the planet  The distance of the planet to its star  The luminosity of the host star

The targets are divided into two categories:  Primary targets: Planets within the habitable zone of the star and with a size similar to Earth. These planets are more difficult to characterize because of their small size. Their long orbital period is also a limiting factor, as transits are less frequent.  Secondary targets: Planets outside the habitable zone or much bigger then Earth.

When there is significant downtime between targets for a spacecraft to observe, the operators will have freedom to observe other targets of opportunity or implement alternate modes of operations. Providing the ability to implement secondary mission objective to the spacecraft operators will also act as an additional incentive for them to get involved with the UniQuE mission.

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5.4 THE UNIQUE MISSION DESIGN 5.4.1 Spacecraft Design To provide a standardized and cost-effective design for the UniQuE spacecraft while simultaneously achieving the highly challenging scientific requirements, TP Exoplanets chose a 12 unit CubeSat platform (see Figure 23). This opens opportunities for universities and different entities around the world to individually design and size all relevant subsystems, while EXO will suggest an overall baseline design of a UniQuE spacecraft.

Figure 23: Proposed design of the UniQuE spacecraft based on a 12 unit cubesat structure

The size of the spacecraft bus has dimensions of 200 x 200 x 300 mm with a maximum total mass of 15 kg. The proposed CubeSat design has four deployable solar panels, which additionally act as sun-shields for the primary mirrors on the other end of the spacecraft.

The amount of light which can be measured by the instrument is determined by two factors; the collection area of the optics, and the length of time which the instrument is active for. In order to reduce the duration which the instrument needs to be collecting data, a system to deploy a larger primary mirror has been designed. We propose four mirrors, each of 0.2 x 0.3 m covering the four sides of the spacecraft during launch. Since the support structure of the mirrors will feature new innovative shape-memory alloy technology which will be able to deform the mirror to the required shape and reduce the structure’s mass. The mirror will be deformed once in orbit and then the shape will persist through careful thermal management (Hartl & Lagoudas, 2007). This will gives us a total reflection area of 0.24 m². For comparison, EChO features an aperture diameter of 1.2 m which results in an active collection area of 1.13 m² (ESA, 2013).A deployable mechanism then places the secondary mirror at the point of the deployed primary mirrors. The spectrometer and telescope is located on the top side of the spacecraft.

5.4.2 Satellite Payload Design The payload hosts a near-infrared spectrometer which looks at the spectral range of the bioindicators in question. To meet the science objectives of characterizing exoplanet atmospheres, TP Exoplanets proposes to implement at a space-qualified version of the Hamamatsu C11118GA near-infrared mini- spectrometer covering the spectral range from 0.9 to 2.55 µm (Hamamatsu Photonics K.K, 2014). It offers high reproducibility (0.8 nm), low temperature dependence (0.08 nm/K), and uses a G9208-256W- type indium gallium arsenide linear image sensor, as depicted in Figure 24. It features an array of 256 pixels (each having dimensions of 50 x 250 μm), moderate cooling requirements (-20 °C) and a low dark current (with maximum 2 nA). These specifications mean that this payload will meet the required sensitivity requirements as detailed within Table 4. Exoplanets Final Report Page 62

The spectrometer will be located outside of the spacecraft to enable passive cooling of the semiconductor detector. In addition, the primary and secondary mirrors have to be kept at low temperature so as not to introduce thermal noise to the system which would compromise the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), prematurely drive the detector into saturation due to increased dark current, and prohibit the measurement of longer wavelengths. In order to extend the measurable spectrum towards longer wavelengths (mid infrared range) an actively cooled detector would be required. Such a cooling system is very difficult to implement within the volume of a small spacecraft, and has been ruled out due to excessive costs.

Figure 24: The proposed photometric sensor for spectroscopy for use on-board the UniQuE spacecraft

The light being reflected from the secondary mirror enters the instrument through a slit which filters out stray light. A grating is used to disperse the incoming light depending on the wavelength, and the semiconductor detector counts the amount of photons in a certain wavelength range (see Figure 25).

Since the required pointing accuracy of 0.5 arc seconds is difficult to achieve with a small spacecraft in low earth orbit we propose mounting the optical detector upon a piezo-electric moving table. This piezo- electric table enables a high degree of fine pointing once the target star has been detected within the field of view. Once within the field of view the on board software can track the object, adjusting the piezo stage to maintain stable viewing. This method is currently under development for the ExoPlanetSat mission (Smith, et al., 2011)

Figure 25: Layout of the optical path inside the Hamamatsu C11118GA spectrometer Exoplanets Final Report Page 63

Figure 26: Terrestrial example of the Hamamatsu C11118GA spectrometer

As described the Section 5.3.2 each satellite only covers a portion of the 0.6 μm to 5 μm spectral range needed to characterize the molecules in the atmosphere of the exoplanet. The Hamamatsu spectrometer presented here only partially covers this range, and therefore further development is required to design instruments suitable for covering the mid to far infrared range. It is currently also designed for use on the ground. Certain design features, such as a convection cooling system, will have to be redesigned before it could be used in space. It is expected that this work will be done by the institutes as part of the payload development. If a more suitable instrument becomes available during time, it will also be considered for use, however currently the Hamamatsu C11118GA best fits the requirements.

5.4.3 UniQuE Constellation and Orbit The baseline orbit for the proposed UniQuE spacecraft is a -dusk Sun Synchronous Orbit (SSO) at a mean altitude of between 600 km to 1,000 km at an inclination of approximately 98 degrees and an orbital period of between 100 min and 105 min. As the orbital plane precesses at a rate of 0.986 degrees per day, the satellites will maintain a constant solar angle.

Such an orbit provides a number of advantages for UniQuE. With the exception of the eclipse season, centered on the summer (northern hemisphere), the spacecraft will experience a relatively stable thermal and illumination environment. In the dawn-dusk orbit, the spacecraft attitude will be such as to keep the solar arrays illuminated while maintaining the payload detector on the anti-Sun side. This will be beneficial to the stable functioning of the instrument, as the quality of the data collected by a spectrometer is highly dependent on the SNR that can be achieved, of which detector thermal noise would be a significant factor. Another benefit of this orbit is that it is frequently used for Earth observation and other missions, resulting in more piggyback or secondary launch opportunities.

We envision the UniQuE constellation as consisting of three to six pairs of nanosatellites, with the ideal configuration having them equidistantly phased in a single orbital plane. This will permit the observation of a targeted exoplanet in sequential "shifts," as described in the concept of operations. Beyond the initial constellation, it is expected that the UniQuE constellation will grow over time to include spacecraft from additional EXO members. Exoplanets Final Report Page 64

The preceding description of the UniQuE constellation and orbit represents the currently assumed baseline. The final orbital configurations, particularly with respect to equator crossing times and phasing, may require modification to accommodate available lower cost secondary launch opportunities. The mission requirements will not require orbital maintenance to be achieved, but the spacecraft will have propulsive capability in order to meet the guidelines of the Inter-Agency Space Debris Coordination Committee at mission end-of-life (Inter-Agency Space Debris Coordination Committee, 2002).

Figure 27 shows an Satellite ToolKit (STK) simulation of the proposed UniQuE orbit, with a mean altitude of 800 km. The ground track of the orbit is shown in yellow. The portion of the orbit which is shown in red is where the spacecraft is within sight of a theoretical ground station based in Paris.

Figure 27: Baseline UniQuE Orbit Ground track simulation

5.4.4 Satellite Bus Design

5.4.4.1 Satellite Structure TP Exoplanets proposes to implement the UniQuE mission using a 12U CubeSat, with dimensions of 20 x 20 x 30 cm. There will be three main deployable structures from this; the solar array, the primary mirror, and the secondary mirror. Each of the deployable elements will be held in place with mechanical diodes once in place. The electronic stack will be held within the remaining central structure.

5.4.4.2 Command and Data Handling Taking the ExoPlanetSat as an example, UniQuE will use commercial, off-the-shelf (COTS) equipment for its data processing and avionics (Smith, et al., 2010). A Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) will be used to read and process image data at a high rate. Storing the data on an SDRAM for temporary storage between transmissions to Earth is also a simple solution to memory storage. The radiation environment in LEO is not as extreme as in GEO or MEO, and so COTS are more likely to survive for the 3 year lifetime we have planned and radiation-hardened chips are not required.

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5.4.4.3 Satellite Communication As stated in Section 5.2.2, the UniQuE mission requires that each satellite communicate its telemetry and science data to the ground station. This will be done through the standard store and forward method. Considering the choice of payload which was detailed in Section 5.4.2, it was calculated that the data rate is approximately 216 bits per target star. We then allowed for a maximum of 4 stars images per downlink and assumed downlink window of approximately 10 minutes following a preliminary model of the desired orbit in STK. Given these input parameters, the data rate required is around 0.1 kbps, which means that both payload and TT&C data can be handled over a single UHF link.

Other missions have previously attempted to engage amateur astronomers by using a constantly running UHF link, allowing amateurs to contribute to health checking the spacecraft (Kenyon & Bridges, 2011). Although not specified by the requirements, this is an additional piece of functionality which may be added to the spacecraft by the participating institute to further EXO’s ambitions to include the amateur community with its work.

Figure 28: Data Flow between Spacecraft Subsystem and the Ground

5.4.4.4 Attitude Determination and Control (ADC) The spacecraft will implement a suite of sun sensors, magnetometers, and a star tracker for attitude determination. Together, sun sensors and magnetometers should be able to provide determination for the coarse pointing mode, with the star tracker used for fine pointing accuracy during science operations.

Attitude control will be done using a combination of reaction wheels and magnetorquers. The magnetorquers will be used for detumbling of the spacecraft after insertion into orbit, as well as for some coarse pointing to maintain the solar panels' orientation to the sun. The reaction wheels are used to meet the high pointing accuracy required by the instrument. The momentum which will build up within the wheels will be offloaded using magnetorquers. The fine pointing mode will be supplemented by mounting the payload on a piezoelectric table. This will adjust the physical position of the instrument in order keep the target star within the field of view through the use of onboard tracking software.

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5.4.4.5 Orbit Determination and Control (ODC) The spacecraft will implement a small GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System) chip to determine its position in three-dimensional space. This information will be used in conjunction with the magnetometer readings to find the orbital position of the spacecraft.

Due to the small mass and the orbit selected for the spacecraft, it will not need to carry out orbital maintenance over the expected three-and-a-half year lifetime of the mission. At the moment, the design does not call for any active propulsion for this reason. If it becomes apparent that the spacecraft does not meet the Inter-Agency Space Debris Coordination Committee (IADC) guidelines for falling out of orbit within 25 years (Inter-Agency Space Debris Coordination Committee, 2002) then additional propulsion systems, such as cold gas thrusters or drag sails may be taken into consideration.

5.4.4.6 Satellite Power System The power subsystem is a fundamental requirement for the satellite, and is determined by the requirements of the rest of the satellite. There are many options for the power subsystem, but due to the restrictions on the size and location, the choices can be narrowed down. The use of solar arrays and batteries is standard for this orbit, and will be more than adequate for the purposes of the mission as long as the arrays and batteries are sized correctly. The dawn-dusk orbit will mean the spacecraft is always exposed to the sun and therefore constantly generating power.

5.4.4.7 Thermal Control Due to the sensitivity of the payload, thermal stability is vital for the success of the mission. The dawn- dusk SSO provides a thermally stable on-orbit thermal environment, which facilitates thermal design. The spacecraft thermal design consists of a passive control supplemented by heaters,

This orbit has good thermal stability but the sun-facing side of the spacecraft will reach high temperatures if not correctly controlled. The payload will be thermally isolated from the spacecraft bus and in particular the back-side of the solar panels which will reach high temperatures. Passive cooling will bring the temperature of the spacecraft down to the required temperature.

Infrared instruments in particular require temperatures down to around 50 K as otherwise the spacecraft will emit IR onto the sensor and produce a systematic noise error. The bus however can be kept at around room temperature (280K) to keep the electronics within their operational design limits. CHEOPS has shown that it is possible - with a large enough radiator area and high emissivity and low absorptivity surfaces to passively cool the spacecraft (ESA, 2014). The optical focal plane container will always be facing dark-space to help with the passive cooling of the optics.

Adiabatic materials such as thermal blankets will be placed on all the surfaces, not covered by radiators. This will reduce the emissivity of the surface to almost zero and control thermal gradients and flow of heat from sensitive areas. Heat transfer metals and pipes can be used to transfer the heat around from the hotter areas, such as the solar panels, to the parts requiring heat, such as propellant tanks to stop them from freezing.

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5.4.5 Launch Selection Each UniQuE microsatellite will have a mass of approximately 15 kg. These modest spacecraft are intended to be launched as secondary or “piggyback” payloads alongside a larger primary payload in order to reduce the mission cost. Each UniQuE microsatellite will be designed to be compatible with the secondary payload accommodations of the major international launch vehicles, including but not limited to PSLV, Falcon 9, and Soyuz-Fregat. Future reusable launch vehicles such as those proposed for Autonomous Mission for On-Orbit Servicing (AMOOS) could also be considered. A principal launch environment concern is the shock and vibration spectrum of the selected launch vehicle and its impact on the payload optics and other deployable mechanical structures of the UniQuE spacecraft. Other considerations include the orbital parameters, in particular ascending node and phasing, that may be constrained by the requirements of the primary payload. In such a case, the configuration of the UniQuE constellation may vary from the original baseline. However, this will not jeopardize compliance to mission requirements.

Figure 29: Potential candidate launch vehicles for UniQuE spacecraft include PSLV (left), Falcon 9 (middle) or Soyuz-Fregat (right)

5.4.6 Ground Stations It is expected that member institutes will provide the ground station facilities required communicate to the spacecraft. Many institutes already have their own equipment which can be used for this task; otherwise they may wish to build their own which could be done through a number of kits which are available on the market already (Innovative Solution In Space, 2014). Before an institute can become a registered ground station for an EXO mission, they will be required to undergo training and gain approval from the organization to prove their reliability with such a critical task. A further way to reduce costs in this aspect would be to have regional ground stations which may be accessed by many command centers across a number on institutes. This would reduce the capital required to build the physical ground station, and enable the task of communicating to the spacecraft to be shared across more institutes.

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5.4.7 Preliminary Mission Budgets The UniQuE mission mass and power budgets are shown in Table 6.

Table 6: Preliminary Mission Budget Summary Subsystem Mass [kg] Power [W] Reference

STRUCTURE Structure 2.2 0 (Innovative Solution In Space, 2014) Star Tracker 1.5 10 (Space Micro, 2014) Coarse Sun Sensor 0.1 0.1 Simple photodiode, inexpensive AOCS Magnetic Torquer 0.1 2 (Clyde Space, 2014) Momentum Wheel 1.4 7

GPS receiver 0.1 1.3 (CubeSat Kit, 2014) Batteries 0.4 0 (Innovative Solution In Space, 2014)

POWER Solar Panels 0.7 0 (Innovative Solution In Space, 2014) Electrical Power 0.1 0 System (Innovative Solution In Space, 2014) Antenna 0.1 0 (Innovative Solution In Space, 2014) COMMS UHF transceiver 0.1 3.5 (Innovative Solution In Space, 2014) DATA 0.1 0.4 HANDLING Onboard Computer (Innovative Solution In Space, 2014) Primary mirror (with deployment 0.3 0 mechanism) Technology to be tested Secondary Mirror PAYLOAD (with deployment 0.5 0 mechanism) Full Development Spectrometer 1.7 14 (Hamamatsu Photonics K.K, 2014) Piezo table 0.2 0.1 (Piezo Nano Positioning, 2014) Sum 9.6 38.4 Margin 2.9 11.6 Total 12.5 50

5.4.8 Mission Definition The driving idea of the UniQuE mission is to design a satellite that can achieve the requirements defined by EXO. Based on the primary objectives of the mission, we can develop a reference baseline configuration. When a University joins the project, they commit themselves to building a spacecraft capable of fulfilling the requirements. The spacecraft performances will not be limited to the given requirements, and the members are welcome to add further functionality or improve upon the given performance requirements as they see fit. This will be taken on at their own risk, and they must still abide by constraints of the mission.

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Two motivations could push universities to go beyond the requirements:  A university has developed an area of expertise and is able to propose a more capable system.  A university benefits from a bigger budget allocated for this kind of research. In this case, the university could, for instance, add another payload, or have additional technology demonstrated alongside the primary payload.

The proposed design is addressed to universities rather than space agencies. For this reason, financial concerns are very important in making the project accessible to a greater number of partners. The design choices made in this section are taken with respect to the financial implications.

5.5 MISSION FEASIBILITY This section analyzes the feasibility of the UniQuE baseline reference mission as described in Section 5.4.

5.5.1 Technical Feasibility The technologies used in this mission are not novel: they have all been proposed before or are COTS technologies, so this mission is technically feasible from the perspective of the equipment used. This mission also uses a small satellite framework, which can piggyback on a larger satellite launch and therefore does not require a specialized launch. The choice of LEO for this mission is shown to be feasible, as many other missions, such as CHEOPS and ExoPlanetSat, which will be performing exoplanetary observations from LEO over the next few years. CHEOPS is currently in development (ESA, 2014), and will not be launched until 2019, and so there is no proof that a small satellite mission will be capable of exoplanet bioindicator characterization.

5.5.2 Economic Feasibility Many people have developed a new organization and performed a small satellite mission in the past. What makes starting EXO feasible is the growing public desire to know if other habitable planets exist, and the increasing momentum of the commercial space industry. EXO’s objectives are clearly defined, and the organization is designed as a scalable growth model. It does not have hard deadlines that could jeopardize its objectives. As shown by the examples of Virgin Galactic, SpaceX, Stratolaunch, and countless others, the high net value individuals (HNWI) have become strongly involved in future research into the commercialization of space. HNWI are not afraid to contribute to the organizations tackling the most interesting questions, such as those within exoplanetary science. Thus, EXO is confident based on high public interest, as well as strong philanthropic support seeding space programs, that economic viability is considered a low to medium risk for our organization.

5.5.3 Legal Feasibility There is much to consider when looking at the legal implications of overseeing a collaborative space based mission. EXO will need to create the legal framework of this mission; assigning data rights, potentially working with ITAR, considering intellectual property, and tackling any liability concerns. TP Exoplanets concludes that the legal feasibility is a manageable concern, though it will require attention, time and money.

Legal aspects in relation to UniQuE mission includes compliance to appropriate international laws and domestic laws including export controls, data policy (in relation to ownership, data exclusivity period, etc.), and IP rights. For consideration and discussion on those aspects, refer to Sections 4.5.2, 4.6.3 and 4.6.4. To increase legal feasibility of the mission, EXO shall carefully identify the possible legal implications associated with the UniQuE mission, and make an agreement with each mission participant that covers potential liability, IP and etc.” Exoplanets Final Report Page 70

5.5.4 Operational Feasibility The organizational feasibility of the UniQuE mission concept is dependent on the oversight structure which is to be implemented by EXO. The design of the satellite hardware and mission planning will need to be approved by the organization; the timeline and information for this can be found in Section 4.4 of this report.

The design and operation of UniQuE will occur as the organizational capacity of EXO develops to support the mission. EXO’s mission support capability will increase slowly as the organization develops, and will only become a significant concern once EXO has become an established organization.

There are several organizations which either have developed or plan to develop a constellation of satellites maintained by different organizations. QB50 and BRITE are both examples of how this concept can be successfully implemented. UniQuE will be working with less developed programs than those involved in BRITE, and QB50 is using less complex hardware than what is currently anticipated for UniQuE. Due to the added complexity and potential for less experienced partners, the organizational risk is higher than in either of those missions and may require more oversight from EXO. These two programs provide good examples that show this organizational model can be successful.

5.5.5 Scheduling EXO will use data from the TESS mission to select many target stars for UniQuE to observe. A result of this reliance is that the completion and release of data from TESS will become an important factor in determining the scheduling of UniQuE. TESS is scheduled to be completed in 2017, and to conduct a two year mission. The current schedule states that data will become available from TESS in late 2019. Our UniQuE mission planning cannot be started until sufficient data is available to allow targets to be selected, and so launching before 2019 is inadvisable.

The timeline from system requirement definition (i.e. Phase A) to launch is 3 years. The start time for the Phase A completion is dependent upon TESS, however the mission timeline is completely independent of its start time. The CHEOPS mission has a timeline of three years from adoption to launch, showing that three years is a sufficient timeline to design and build a mission.

5.5.6 Scientific Feasibility The UniQuE mission will attempt to characterize exoplanet atmospheres during transits. Though other missions, such as JWST, are planned to characterize exoplanet atmospheres, it will not be their primary science goal. Due to the limitations of observation time which will be assigned to exoplanetary research, they will not have the availability to do the desired characterization on a large scale. However, our research looking at current and future mission shows that cheap small satellites are now being used more extensively for exoplanetary research. It is only a natural progression from here to take advantage of recent advances in this field and apply them to the next step of exoplanet observation.

The UniQuE constellation will have high availability and flexibility, as well as sufficient resolution to determine some of the atmospheric characteristics most desired by the scientific community. This is a major scientific gap, one which is unlikely to be filled in the near future by other missions. Although further research is needed, our conclusion is that a mission like UniQuE is possible, and will be able to provide the data required to analyze exoplanetary atmospheres.

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5.5.7 Is the Mission Feasible with a Microsatellite? The issue we have with limiting this spacecraft to a small size is that the aperture of the optics is limited to the size of the structure. EChO uses a 1.2 m telescope to perform its analysis of the spectrum in the range of 0.55 to 11 microns, and actively cools its sensors. The UniQuE mission will have to achieve comparable results to EChO, but with a smaller aperture, less power, and from LEO. The selected sensor has a similar resolving power and, provided that the mirrors are large enough, can capture sufficient light. This design is new and untested, so its ultimate feasible will require further engineering study. The institutes participating in the UniQuE mission will have the freedom to make changes and conduct more research, possibly developing a more feasible solution than presented here.

5.5.8 International Collaboration International collaboration is at the heart of any large scale scientific project. Some recent successful examples of this are: the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, Geneva, Switzerland; the Telescope; the International Space Station; and the Thirty Meter Telescope, Hawaii, USA. All of these projects have required a large collaborative effort, and promise great scientific returns (Roy, 2009; CERN, 2008; Sanders, 2013). However, all these projects have also had problems with collaboration as they have developed; time lines, budgets, and commitments become increasingly difficult to manage, mitigate, and keep (Stockman, et al., n.d.). Several studies have been done on how to improve the success of international collaboration. A report by the Royal Society titled ‘Knowledge, Networks and Aims’ has examined some case studies on international collaboration, and developed five key recommendations in response. (The Royal Society, 2010) These are:

 Support for international science should be maintained and strengthened  Internationally collaborative science should be encouraged, supported and facilitated  National and international strategies for science are required to address global challenges  International capacity building is crucial to ensure that the impacts of scientific research are shared globally  Better indicators are required in order to properly evaluate global science

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5.6 MISSION RISKS Along with the proposal of the reference concept of UniQuE, a mission risk analysis was performed alongside the feasibility study. Within this section the major risks to the mission, as well as potential mitigation techniques, are presented.

5.6.1 Risk Management The organization will follow the Continuous Risk Management (CRM) approach, which the majority of space agencies and companies also utilize (NASA, 2007). We must point out that risk identification and management is not a static process that is done once in the early phase of the project, but an ongoing development throughout the entire project. We identified the following principles for CRM: identify, analyze, plan, track, control. In Figure 30, the idea of the whole iterative process is illustrated.

Figure 30: Continuous Risk Management Principles (NASA, 2007)

Organizational, economic, financial, technological, and sociological risks do exist; as a first step, they have to be identified. It is important not to just concentrate on technological efforts and potential risks during development, but also to consider the mission as a cooperation of scientists, engineers, lawyers, economists, and philosophers and the potential risks which may arise through interactions between these parties. In the next step, the identified risks have to be analyzed carefully to gather additional or background information related to the corresponding field. This allows the estimation of the probability, the impact or severity, the classification, and the prioritization. We have developed a plan for risk mitigation which deals with potential means in order to reduce the probability or severity of the identified risks. During the entire project, the risks will be monitored continuously and potential adjustments of the mitigation strategies can be performed. Based on these strategies, decisions can be made to keep the mission on track.

We evaluated every risk and assign it a likelihood (1 for Remote up to 5 for Certain) and a potential severity or impact (1 for Trivial up to 5 for Critical) to each. Based on these estimates, the Risk Index (RI) can be computed for each identified risk. In Table 7 the RI scheme is illustrated, where the RI is computed multiplying the likelihood and the severity values. The table shows RI value for the identified risks (dark blue), and mitigated risks (light blue).

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Table 7: Risk Matrix with RI Values, Identified Risk Likelihood

1 2 3 4 5 Remote Unlikely Possible Likely Certain 1 1 2 3 4 5

Trivial

2 12 07 2 4 6 8 10 Minor 08

Impact 3 09 04 04 3 6 9 12 15 Serious 10 4 13 05 01 01 4 06 8 12 16 20 Severity / Major 5 11 03 03 02 5 10 15 20 25 Fatal

5.6.2 Risk Identification and Assessment We summarize the main risks that potentially endanger the success of the proposed mission in Table 8. In addition to the risk factor, risk scenario, estimated likelihood and severity values, and corresponding RI value, a unique ID was assigned to each risk. The colors correspond to the risk matrix presented above. We judged none of them to carry a significant risk potential (RI > 16). Please also refer to Table 9 which shows the identified risks (dark blue) and the mitigated risks (light blue).

Table 8: Identified Risks Description ID Risk Factor Risk Scenario / Cause Likelihood Severity RI R01 Financial Exceeding estimated project costs 4 4 16 R02 Technological Failure of deployable optics to operate as desired. 3 5 15 Definition of full set of requirements for the R03 Science 2 5 10 constellation; ability to identify gaps in current research Cooperation between a variety of countries; intercultural R04 Management 3 3 9 differences and language barriers Launch constraints like ITAR; orbital constraints due to R05 Management 3 3 9 piggy-back launching Failure to garner public support leading to loss of R06 Sociological 2 4 8 funding Loss of database data due to malicious behavior; R07 Management 3 2 6 security issues in data propagation Spacecraft and mission design complexity; experience R08 Technological 3 2 6 and technological capabilities of universities Premature spacecraft failure before scheduled end of R09 Technological 2 3 6 mission; insufficient data gathered R10 Management Schedule; timing constraints 2 3 6 R11 Sociological Insufficient cooperation with space agencies 1 5 5 Funding priority assigned by space agencies; completion R12 Financial 2 2 4 of multi-phase projects R13 Technological Launch failure 1 4 4

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5.6.3 Risk Mitigation A high RI value indicates a high potential for impact on the success of the mission and a non-negligible probability of occurrence. For the four most endangering risks—R01, R02, R03, and R04—we have created mitigation strategies (see Table 9: Risk Mitigation Strategy) in order to reduce the RI and the accompanying potential negative effects.

We could strongly reduce the RI values of the most endangering risks by reducing the probability of occurrence. Table 9 illustrates the mitigation results (light blue).

Table 9: Risk Mitigation Strategy Initial After Mitigation ID Mitigation Plan Likelihood Severity RI Likelihood Severity RI The project will be split into phases with milestones at the end of each. This will enable better monitoring of project progress and spent resources. Periodic reviews (also external) ensure proper R01 4 4 16 2 4 8 project management, and show potential deviations from the project plan. Various funding agencies and sponsors in different countries increase financial independence if one fails to pay. Extensive ground testing will occur in R02 analogue facilities to ensure successful 3 5 15 2 5 10 deployment in space. Either internationally reputable scientists can hired who need to figure out the best scientific case, or an international competition can be R03 set up. This would enable universities and 2 5 10 1 5 5 companies to present their scientific cases which might result in valuable different approaches. Cooperation between multiple countries with different cultural backgrounds and different languages can lead to difficulties regarding project progress. R04 3 3 9 2 3 6 Distribution of documents in several languages, different approaches to different countries, and periodic feedback should facilitate cooperation.

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5.7 MISSION COSTS ANALYSIS FOR UNIQUE The low cost of the UniQuE mission is one of the key aspects that will ensure that a broad range of nations and organizations can participate. This section provides an indicative rough order of magnitude (ROM) cost estimate for the program including the costs of developing and building the standard design and to operate the satellite during its nominal on-orbit mission. Cost estimation was done by top-down analogy extrapolated from the known costs of similar historical missions.

5.7.1 Reference Design Development To ensure that participants with less experience will be able to participate in the program, a baseline reference design that meets the mission requirements will be generated. EXO would then provide this design to participants, allowing them to latitude to modify the design so long as the final product meets the mission requirements.

The baseline reference design will be created collaboratively in order to share the cost of development and incorporate the best ideas from a broad spectrum of individuals and organizations. EXO will need a small staff of EXO experts who will coordinate and manage this collaborative satellite design approach. The design cost will be controlled by constraining the mission requirements, as well as the management reporting and product assurance requirements, to the minimum required for the UniQuE mission.

5.7.2 Cost Model Discussion Space mission costing by top-down analogy “compares the … project under consideration with [a] few… similar historical projects”. (Angelis, 2000) This methodology provides an indicative rough order of magnitude (ROM) cost estimate in which technological readiness level (TRL) and mission complexity are subjective measures that must be taken into account.

The UniQuE mission falls into a class of satellites with relatively little historical cost data available As UniQuE falls between two classes of satellites, the selection of historical missions to be used for comparison will include the smallest of the microsatellites and the largest of the nanosatellites. TRL level and mission complexity were accounted for with multipliers on the estimated ROM mass cost.

5.7.3 Background on Costing Model To perform analogous cost modeling, it is necessary to identify satellites which are as similar as possible to get the best estimate. As mentioned above, this is difficult because a UniQuE class satellite has not been put in orbit yet.

For this comparison, four 3u size small satellites were selected to provide estimates that would be expected to be lower than a UniQuE satellite, and three micro class satellites were selected to provide an upper bound. The complexity of the chosen satellites varies, with some being relatively simple like Colorado Student Experiment (CSSWE), and some which required more development time to reach a finished model, like ExoPlanetSat.

To perform the ROM cost estimation by top-down analogy, it was necessary to identify satellites that are as similar as possible to UniQuE. As discussed in the previous section, this was challenging because a UniQuE falls between the traditional microsatellite and nanosatellite mission classes. As shown in Table 10, the ROM cost estimation for UniQuE was bounded by data for three representative nanosatellite-class missions on the low end and three microsatellite-class missions on the high end. The complexity of the chosen costing analogies varied, with some relatively simple spacecraft like CSSWE and some that required more development such as ExoPlanetSat. Exoplanets Final Report Page 76

Table 10: Comparative Satellite Costing

Name Size Weight Cost (k$ in USD) Notes Reference

(Grocott, et al., Most Micro 53 7,500 2004) Includes 2 years of (MCSI, 2013) (CSA, NEOSSAT Micro 65 25,000 operation 2014) (eo, 2002) (Roop, FASTSAT Micro 180 10,000 2012) (NASA, 2010) GeneSat 3U 5 8,000 (NASA, 2007) CSSWE 3U 3 840 (Schiller & al., 2014)

$5,000,000-$6,000,000 for initial model, $750,000 (Earth Observation ExoPlanetSat 3U 5.5 5,000-6,000* expected for follow on Portal, 2014) models; launch expected to (Seager, 2014) be ~$325,000 build and test cost; launch Nanosail-D 3U 3.9 250* (Clark, 2011) expected to be ~$325,000 * Cost without launch

5.7.4 UniQuE Mission ROM Cost Estimate Design parameters for the UniQuE mission can be found in Section 5.4.1. The initial UniQuE satellite will require a focused design effort as some components such as the memory metal mirrors do not yet have space heritage. For this reason, the initial model will likely cost more than comparison missions like ExoPlanetSat.

Once a proof-of-concept model has been built, the design will be revisited based on the “design to cost” methodology in order to streamline the spacecraft to the minimum configuration required to meet the mission requirements and thereby make it affordable to as many participants as possible. There is the possibility that certain specialized components may need to be provided to the participants, as the payload is in the QB50 program.

The UniQuE satellite will have the following characteristics:  Mass: ~15 kg  Mission Design Lifetime: 3.5 years  Notional Orbit: 800-1,000 km SSO (final orbit dependent on launch opportunity)

As can be seen in Table 10, the costs for satellites can vary widely. GeneSat, which was developed by NASA, cost more than the 10 times heavier MOST satellite developed by the . The satellite most analogous to UniQuE is the ExoPlanetSat. This proposed MIT mission has developed new technologies to achieve the required pointing accuracy and to miniaturize the components to fit into a 3U form factor. UniQuE will be more complex than ExoPlanetSat due to the mirrors, the very small spectrometer, and more stringent pointing requirements. The added complexity is expected to make both the initial prototype and the follow-on models more expensive.

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The launch cost for UniQuE is one component of the rough order of magnitude (ROM) cost estimate for which there is some certainty. According to published prices, the cost to launch a 3U cubesat is $325,000, a 12U cubesat is $995,000, and a microsat weighing 50 kg is $1,750,000. (Spcaceflight.com, 2014)

Table 10 provides a representative sample of comparable satellites. Again, UniQuE is expected to be more expensive than any of the nanosatellites but less expensive than the more advanced microsatellites. Taking this into consideration, the indicative (ROM) cost for the initial UniQuE prototype is estimated to be between $10-million USD to $12-million USD including launch. Consultation with Prof. Sara Seager of MIT suggested that a developmental ROM cost of $10,000,000 for a satellite with engineering enhancements of one to two orders of magnitude beyond ExoPlanetSat is reasonable (Seager, 2014). Given the uncertainties in this very early stage of the notional UniQuE mission, it is recommended that an additional 30% contingency margin be held for project planning purposes.

It is expected that the unit cost will decrease for the follow-on UniQuE satellites. Again using ExoPlanetSat as an analogy, significant cost reductions of up to eight times lower than the original prototype may be feasible. If a similar cost reduction could be realized on UniQuE, the subsequent satellites could be between $1.3-million USD to $1.5-million USD.

5.7.5 Cost Reduction Methodologies In order to allow the greatest possible number of participants, it is important for UniQuE to be as low cost as possible. The following are a summary of cost reduction methodologies that will be considered for UniQuE:  Constrain the mission requirements, as well as the management reporting and product assurance requirements, to the absolute minimum required.  Launch as a “piggyback” secondary payload on lower cost vehicles such as PSLV, Falcon 9, Soyuz-Fregat, or notional future reusable launch vehicles such as those proposed for AMOOS (Autonomous Mission for On-Orbit Servicing). This may require trading off a lower launch cost with potentially having to accept a sub-optimal orbit that is different than the baseline mission orbit.  Use a consortium of universities to help with design work as much as feasible. Engaging industry to design the complete satellite might be faster but would likely cost more. This was one of the key points noted by Prof. Sara Seager of MIT during her discussion with the report authors.  Employ commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) parts whenever possible. The expected lifetime and orbit of the UniQuE mission should allow non-space qualified components to be used in the design of the satellite. COTS components have been used by many entities including NASA as a way to build lower cost satellites than would otherwise be possible. (NASA, 2013)  Following the completion of the proof-of-concept spacecraft model, revisit the design based on a “design to cost” methodology in order to streamline the spacecraft to the minimum configuration required to meet the mission requirements.

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6. CONCLUSION

6.1 SUMMARIZATION OF TP GOALS TP Exoplanet had initial goals and task objectives listed within the ISU SSP 2014 Handbook. These helped frame the team’s early thoughts, but an important point was consistently accentuated by ISU staff: the TP teams have freedom to direct the project in any direction that we see fit. In other words, the team was not bound to the listed objectives and goals. Early stages of the project resulted in the TP members having to identify their goals for the team project.

After brainstorming activities, guest lectures, and multiple team discussions, the team was able to formulate a mission statement for the team project. ISU’s 3i focus and the desire to create something new were key influences in the formation of this statement.

From the mission statement, it was clear that the TP had the following major objectives:

1. To identify current gaps and overlaps in the approach towards an international exoplanetary research effort; 2. To propose a framework for an international organization for exoplanetary research and for the UniQuE mission; 3. To research the social concerns, economic impacts, and legal issues relevant to both EXO and its UniQuE mission; and 4. To analyze the previous effects of disruptive technologies, and examine how to recreate the actions and social context that influenced the dreamers of yesteryear.

6.2 TP ACCOMPLISHMENTS After analyzing the current and future exoplanet missions, we identified gaps and overlaps and addressed them within this project. This was done by proposing the international EXO, as well as its example mission, UniQuE.

6.2.1 Organization Summary International collaboration on exoplanetary research is defined by its high cost, low financial return, and a purpose that is mainly scientific instead of commercial purpose. Nations, recognize that no single country can hope to shoulder all of the costs on its own necessary to initiate and develop an exoplanet project. The current situation is that the major space powers, including the United States, Russia, Europe, China and other nations with different strengths and capabilities in the space domain, have shown their keen interests in exoplanetary research.

The TP team observed two distinct gaps in our survey of exoplanet-focused organizations:  lack of international collaboration by some well-functioning, but domestically-focused exoplanet groups  lack of integration and coordination between professionals and amateurs on exoplanet efforts among professionals and amateurs

We concluded that there is a gap which a newly defined international organization on exoplanetary research could fill. Hence, the Exoplanet eXploration Organization (EXO) was proposed to promote exoplanetary research, education, and outreach through international collaboration. Exoplanets Final Report Page 79

EXO is designed as an interdisciplinary, international, and, intercultural organization focused on exoplanet science, which provides an international framework to achieve three primary objectives:  To facilitate exoplanetary research coordination and collaboration  To expand scientific outreach efforts on the subject of exoplanets. and to improve public education about exoplanets  To develop an exoplanetary research mission

The work of EXO spans the full range of activities required for proper international coordination of exoplanet programs, expansion of exoplanetary outreach efforts, and improvement of public education about exoplanets. It ranges from the development of a global database for existing exoplanet data and data to be generated by the UniQuE mission with promoting a standard format, through to the engagement of the wide public and the involvement of amateur astronomers in contributing to exoplanetary efforts. To successfully realize its purpose, we have constructed a comprehensive design for EXO, including its organizational structure, including each branch’s role and responsibility, membership, financial aspects, roadmap, and even TOR. Based on this design, we have elaborated on the organization's capabilities, its link with missions, its policy and legal considerations, and a specific analysis of the data handling and outreach and education of EXO. All the activities have ensured that this organization is well-organized, feasible and sustainable.

6.2.2 Mission Summary To advance the scientific return within the field of exoplanetary research, both ground based confirmation and space-based follow-up mission needs to be carried out. To that end, the proposed scientific mission, UniQuE, will complement ground based observations by analyzing the atmospheres of exoplanets through spectroscopy. This technique will capture the spectrum of the host start itself, and also the combined spectrum of star and its planet during a transit. Subtracting the star’s spectrum from the combined spectrum will gives the atmospheric spectrum of the exoplanet, which can be analyzed for molecules like H2O, CO2, and CH4—all key indicators of life. Identifying these molecules would be the first potential way to for life, which has not yet been found on an exoplanet.

Besides the scientific return, international, intercultural and interdisciplinary collaborations were another important factor in the overall UniQuE mission concept. Since the UniQuE mission consists of multiple microsatellite sized spacecraft, its principal aim is to include previously uninvolved nations, agencies, and universities by letting them design and operate their own microsatellite. The overall guidance and high level mission requirements will be given by EXO, but the detailed designs will then be carried out by the participating entity. There is not only a scientific benefit to participation, but also a huge advancement of the clients' technical and operational knowledge. At the same time, great interest is being generated through public outreach for the field of exoplanetary research.

Cost effectiveness, redundancy, and almost constant coverage of all transit events can be guaranteed through multiple microsatellite spacecraft, as opposed to one big space telescope. Cost effectiveness is achieved through the distribution of the satellite design and operation costs between the participating entities, as well as through piggyback launching. Since the orbits of the different satellites will be highly diverse, a constant coverage of any transiting exoplanet at almost any relative position in the sky can be achieved. However, this assumes that the star is sufficiently bright. To achieve redundancy, EXO will coordinate, monitor, and schedule the observation times of all the UniQuE spacecraft so that the ones in the right orbit at the right time will capture the relevant transit of the planet. Since these events can be foreseen for confirmed exoplanets, the observation time of the individual satellites can be blocked by EXO. The rest of the time, when there is no transit occurring, or when the satellite is in a position where an occurring transit cannot be analyzed, the clients can use the satellite for their own research or investigations. Exoplanets Final Report Page 80

The UniQuE mission is a perfect example of how to address the urgent needs in the scientific community while engaging international entities and being cost-effective at the same time.

6.2.3 TP Process Our TP began with initial research, combined with many visiting lecturers and experts in the Exoplanet field. Although many of us have little astrophysics background, this initial phase gave everyone a good overview on the field and a basic understanding of the current state of the art.

Following this initial phase, we had many discussions and debates on the goals we want to achieve. Some of the questions were:

 At which audience are we aiming?  Should we focus on an exoplanet mission, or should we propose a new organization or a roadmap for future missions?  What are the scientific gaps in the current exoplanetary research?  How can we get the general public involved into exoplanetary research?

Answering these questions was time consuming, and once the team agreed on the answers, the way forward became much clearer.

We continued by separating into subgroups, each responsible for certain parts of the final report. We did more thorough research at this stage, focusing on our mission and organization. Finally, we progressed to the writing and editing portion. Integrating our research and managing the work done in the different subgroups was the main focus. This was also the moment at which we began producing content in a graphic manner, final presentation materials, and executive summary materials.

6.3 PATH FORWARD

6.3.1 Report utilization/Future activities We believe that our report has the potential to influence the field of exoplanetary research if utilized properly. There is no doubt that there is a need for an organization to unify and direct the exoplanetary research globally. Of more importance, exoplanets can be a source of excitement, not only to astrophysicists and experts, but also to the amateur community with a passion for sciences.

We hope that this report reaches the hands of those with vision and passion, and will be the initial step in the formation of an organization similar to the EXO proposed. We believe the example mission suggested, UniQuE, could be a good initial goal for this organization, as it will involve many people in exoplanetary research who are not part of the community today.

A lot more work on this subject needs to be done. The ideas presented in this report have been covered conceptually. To take this report and make a plan of action from it, further scientific and engineering research will be required.

We hope that, as exoplanetary research advances in the coming decades, some of the suggestions and ideas in this report will become influential to reality.

6.3.2 Limitations The following limitations have been identified: Exoplanets Final Report Page 81

 Lack of time to sufficiently the investigate topics proposed  Lack of expertise, knowledge and specialism  Insufficient research into human reactions following exoplanetary discoveries  Difficulty in finding credible, referable sources for topics such as religion, spirituality, cultural reactions towards alien life, and habitable planet discoveries  Have to make broad sweeping generalizations in order to fit content in allotted page space  Lack of time to construct a proper business case study for organizational feasibility  No enough time to consult thoroughly the available subject matter experts for every topic covered in this report  Lack of depth to fully explore and define the subject matter  Victims of over ambition and scope creep, addressing to broad topics for the limited page space

6.4 KEY FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS The key findings of the ISU SSP14 Exoplanets Team Project are summarized as follows:  There is currently no organization or framework to facilitate intercultural, international and interdisciplinary collaboration on exoplanetary research, education and outreach. A new organization is required to coordinate the efforts of multiple agencies and organizations and to engage emerging spacefaring nations and other entities hitherto excluded from exoplanetary research.  The current NASA/JPL/Caltech Exoplanet Exploration Program (ExEP), the NASA Exoplanet Science Institute (NExScI) and the Caltech PlanetQuest programs are excellent, however, they are currently U.S. domestic focused with little current efforts to include other space agencies.  Separate exoplanet organizations exist for professionals (e.g. ExEP), educational institutions (e.g. MIT), and amateurs (e.g. Planetary Society). There is room for improvement on coordinating exoplanet efforts among professionals, academics and amateurs around the world.  With the cancellation of the Exoplanet Characterization Observatory (EChO) mission and uncertainties in the development of the Planet Hunting and Asteroseismology Explorer Spectrophotometer (PHASES) mission, there is a gap in the current roadmap of exoplanet missions for a spacecraft that is dedicated to the characterization of exoplanetary atmospheres.  Certain niche scientific objectives, such as characterizing the atmospheres of confirmed exoplanets, could be accomplished cost effectively using smaller spacecraft.  A number of online exoplanet databases currently exist. There is, however, little consistency amongst the sites, in some cases even with basic statistics such as the number of candidate and confirmed exoplanets. Data is often not presented in a clear and consistent format. Efforts to consolidate and standardize data would result in significant benefits for the international Exoplanet community.

To address the key findings listed above, the ISU SSP14 Exoplanets Team Project makes the following recommendations:  Establish an Exoplanet eXploration Organization (EXO) to provide a framework for an intercultural, international and interdisciplinary collaboration on exoplanetary research, education and outreach. The organization should coordinate the efforts of multiple agencies and organizations, with a particular emphasis on emerging spacefaring nations and other entities hitherto excluded from exoplanetary research.  Develop a low-cost mission to recover the exoplanet atmospheric characterization science objectives of the cancelled EChO mission. This could be accomplished by the notional EXO through the development of UniQuE (United Quest for Exoplanets) microsatellite constellation concept described in this report. Exoplanets Final Report Page 82

7. DOCUMENTS

The following documents, at the indicated revision level and/or date of issue, are applicable to the extent specified herein. If no revision level or date of issue is specified, the current revision is applicable.

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18. Figure 18: Organizational Structure 19. Figure 19: EXO Growth Timeline 20. Figure 20: Mission process link with organization 21. Figure 21: Google Trend analysis for “exoplanet(s)” and “Super Earth” search requests since 2004. Letters indicate correlating media coverage of the topic. Image Courtesy of Google Inc. from Accessed [1st August 2014] 22. Figure 22: Concept of Operations 23. Figure 23: Proposed design of the UniQuE spacecraft based on a 12 unit cubesat structure 24. Figure 24: The proposed photometric sensor for spectroscopy for use on-board the UniQuE spacecraft Image Courtesy of (Hamamatsu Photonics K.K, 2014). 25. Figure 25: Layout of the optical path inside the Hamamatsu C11118GA spectrometerImage Courtesy of (Hamamatsu Photonics K.K, 2014). 26. Figure 26: Terrestrial example of the Hamamatsu C11118GA spectrometer Image Courtesy of (Hamamatsu Photonics K.K, 2014). 27. Figure 27: Baseline UniQuE Orbit Ground track simulation 28. Figure 28: Data Flow between Spacecraft Subsystem and the Ground 29. Figure 29: Potential candidate launch vehicles for UniQuE spacecraft include PSLV (left), Falcon 9 (middle) or Soyuz-Fregat (right) Images courtesy of ISRO from ; Spaceflight Now from < http://www.spaceflightnow.com/falcon/090112f9vertical/>; International Launch Services from < http://www.ilslaunch.com/node/26> Accessed [1st August 2014] 30. Figure 30: Continuous Risk Management Principles

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SSP2014 Cl and Justin ROCK!!!!

APPENDIX A: Terms of Reference for EXO This document constitutes the Terms of Reference (TOR) for EXO and establishes a voluntary, non- binding international collaboration mechanism and the basic principles related to its function.

1. Purpose EXO is an intercultural, international, and interdisciplinary organization focused on exoplanet science.

2. Objectives EXO provides an international framework to achieve three primary objectives:

a. Facilitate exoplanetary research coordination and collaboration b. Expand exoplanet outreach efforts and improve exoplanet public education c. Support and coordinate the development of exoplanetary research missions

3. Scope EXO shall address the following three main areas:

a. Facilitate exoplanetary research coordination and collaboration i. Identify collaborative opportunities within exoplanetary research ii. Facilitate communication between members about relevant exoplanet missions, research, and opportunities iii. Offer an annual conference to members on the status of these activities with follow on a plenary meeting iv. Develop a public interface for existing exoplanet data and data generated by EXO missions v. Promote a standard format for data

b. Expand exoplanet outreach efforts and improve exoplanet public education i. Engage a wider public by making exoplanetary research accessible and attractive ii. Allow amateur astronomers to contribute to the research effort and discuss exoplanets iii. Help schools and educators worldwide by providing resources, lesson plans, access to experts, and ideas for trips and activities iv. Help educational institutions design and build their own missions and collaborate on and share research projects and ideas v. Provide consultation on current exoplanetary research and suggest possible collaborations between smaller groups and nations, with particular effort towards emerging space communities vi. Provide expertise on fundraising to support exoplanet educational and outreach activities

c. Develop the Unifying Quest for Exoplanets (UniQuE) mission and future international collaborative missions i. Provide satellite requirements for the UniQuE mission to participants ii. Provide guidance for design reviews for all mission stages iii. Provide support, technical advice, and financial advice to mission participants iv. Provide guidelines for data storage and formatting v. Coordinate EXO mission operations

vi. Provide awareness to the international community of opportunities to address gaps in exoplanetary research

4. Membership EXO is composed of:

a. National Members National Members are space agencies or governmental or intergovernmental entities that coordinate and fund exoplanet activities and are capable of contributing to or carrying out an exoplanet activities, and desiring to promote its participation in international exoplanet collaboration and supporting the objective of EXO. National Members may invite supporting expertise from other organizations, entities, or government agencies by including those experts in their delegation.

b. Individual Members Individual Members are any individual or any entities who has interest in exoplanets research, outreach and education.

5. Organizational Structure EXO consists of a. Board of Directors b. Chair c. Independent Evaluation Committee (IEC) d. Science and Technology Committee (STC) e. Program Executive Committee (PEC) f. Finance Management Committee (FMC) g. Policy Guidance and Implementation Committee (PGIC) h. Public Platform (PP)

a. Board of Directors i. Organizes the overall EXO activities ii. Revises governing documents iii. Establishes and coordinates the Committees' activities (determines the scope of activity and objectives of each Committee, appoints a Chairperson of each Committee, monitors Committees' activities, decides action items and assigns them to Committee, and determines when an action item is closed) iv. Defines new areas of EXO activity (review and approve near-term and long-term work plan) v. Represents EXO to other organizations vi. Determines appropriate public release of EXO data, findings, and reports vii. Review and approve the annual budget by the FMC viii. Review and approve the annual academic report and new exoplanet proposals by the STC ix. Review the progress of the exoplanet programs managed by the PEC x. Review the progress of PP

b. Chair - Rotates and annual plenary session i. Ensure guidance and direction from the annual plenary meeting are appropriately reflected in EXO’s activities and collective strategic priorities

ii. The EXO Chair rotates at the annual plenary meeting. Chairs are elected at the plenary meetings. c. Independent Evaluation Committee (IEC) i. Assess and evaluate the progress of the committees and report to the Board of Directors ii. Prepare the evaluation report on the annual budget and submit it to the Board of Directors d. Science and Technology Committee (STC) i. Organize the academic conference, meetings, and workshops on a regular basis ii. Prepare and submit the exoplanetary research proposals to enhance research iii. Act as consultants to national space agencies to identify overlaps or gaps in planned missions iv. Generate a regular publication with the purpose of sharing research and generating interest in exoplanet science e. Program Executive Committee (PEC) i. Manage the projects of EXO (including UniQuE mission) ii. Coordinate with national members to maximize the benefits of their own exoplanet programs by the international collaboration f. Finance Management Committee (FMC) i. Obtaining funding and utilization of monetary resources ii. Prepare and submit the annual budget g. Policy Guidance and Implementation Committee (PGIC) i. Fulfill a policy role in EXO by creating and revising the governing documents ii. Generate and maintain intergovernmental and interagency agreements within the framework of EXO iii. Advises on legal issues such as intellectual property (IP) and International Traffic and Arms Regulation (ITAR) h. Public Platform (PP) i. Coordinate education and outreach efforts ii. Manage sub-branches (as detailed below), news releases, and outreach publications

 EXO Data System o Promote the use of existing exoplanet data and data generated by EXO missions by extending the global database o Promote a standard format for data and metadata to facilitate the public access to the data

 EXO Society o Engage the public through making exoplanetary research accessible and exciting o Help schools and educators by providing resources, lesson plans, access to experts, and ideas for trips and activities

o Involve amateur astronomers by providing a platform for them to contribute to the research effort and discuss exoplanets o Help universities design and build their own missions and collaborate on and share research projects and ideas o Organize an exoplanet competition prize to engage amateur astronomers to contribute to the research effort (such as looking for an exoplanet, characterization of the existing exoplanets) o Advise agencies by consulting on current exoplanetary research and suggesting possible collaborations between smaller groups and nations

 Commercial Mission Partner o Provide expertise on fundraising to support exoplanet educational and outreach activities.

6. Meetings Plenary meeting shall be held annually to determine policy, review progress on the projects and activities being undertaken, and set the agenda of activities for the upcoming year, while the subcommittee meetings are held respectively.

7. Release of EXO Data, Findings, and Reports The activities of EXO are designed to promote and to improve exoplanet activities. Data and findings from its activities, such as data findings from the UniQuE, and reports of special interest will be released to the public after a data exclusivity period established by the board in consultation with the international scientific community. Release of such information may be accomplished via the EXO web site, papers prepared for scientific journals or conferences, via the news media, or other means.

8. Budgets and Dues a. FMC generates budgets and seeks sources of funding with approval of the board. FMC also determines dues for each type of membership b. The payment of contributions is the responsibility of the Members c. EXO can also receive funding by means of sponsorship, donation, and revenue from commercial program

APPENDIX B: Power Estimation for Small Satellite

Table 11: Power estimations for a small satellite (Reeves, 2005) Subsystem Percentage of total power (%) Power(W)

Payload 40 40

Propulsion 0 0

Attitude Control 15 10

Communications 5 10

OBDH 5 10

Thermal 5 5

Power 30 20

Structure 0 0

Total 100 70

Using the equations and design steps from (McDermott, 2005), the area of the solar array can be determined for a requirement of 200W:

Equation 1 : Power when Sun is Normal to Panel

Equation 2 : Power Beginning of Life

Equation 3: Power Output

Equation 4: Degradation Factor

Equation 5: Power End of Life

Equation 6 : Panel Area a. *Assuming the panel would be in a square configuration, the length or height would need to be 1.176m International Space University Revision August 1, 2014

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