The Pandora SmallSat: A Mission to spectroscopically study exoplanet atmospheres

Abstract

Pandora is a low-cost space telescope designed to measure the composition of distant transiting planets. The Pandora observatory is designed with the capability of measuring precision photometry simultaneously with near-infrared spectroscopy, enabling scientists to disentangle stellar activity from the subtle signature of a planetary atmosphere. The broad-wavelength coverage will provide constraints on the spot and faculae covering fractions of low-mass exoplanet host stars and the impact of these active regions on exoplanetary transmission spectra. Pandora will subsequently identify exoplanets with hydrogen- or water-dominated atmospheres, and robustly determine which planets are covered by clouds and hazes. Pandora observations will also contribute to the study of transit timing variations and phase curve photometry. With a launch readiness date of early-2025, the Pandora mission represents a new class of low-cost space missions that will achieve out-of-this-world science. © 2022 SPIE.