![Life 2.0 mission concept and simulated biosignature spectroscopy. The distributed array observes a common target with many one-meter telescope modules. The example spectra illustrate UV-optical atmospheric signatures and the simulated recovery of O₃, O₂, and H₂O after calibrated spectral co-addition. -- [astro-ph.IM]](https://i0.wp.com/astrobiology.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Life-2.0.jpg?fit=1200%2C674&ssl=1)
[astro-ph.IM] Answering the question “Are we alone?” requires atmospheric spectroscopy of nearby terrestrial planets. For an Earth–Sun analog, even the strongest transmission signals are expected to be of order 1 part per million (ppm). Unlike short-period planets, Earth 2.0 planets transit only about once per year, so single-transit sensitivity, rather than stacking repeated observations, is the fundamental design driver.
Life 2.0 is a scalable space-mission concept linking Earth 2.0 candidates discovered by PLATO and the Earth 2.0 (ET) mission with atmospheric characterization and biosignature assessment. The baseline architecture comprises 900 one-meter space telescopes, each equipped with a high-throughput Waveguide Integrated Miniature Spectrograph and an ultra-low-read-noise CMOS detector.
After independent calibration, spectra acquired simultaneously during a transit are combined, providing the photon-collecting capability of an approximately 30-m aperture at the selected spectral resolution while retaining a modular architecture. The baseline 0.2–1.05 μm range covers O3, O2, H2O, Rayleigh scattering, and other diagnostics, with extension into the infrared as detector technologies mature.
Prototype Waveguide Spectral Lens devices have demonstrated 40–66% throughput at resolving powers from R∼200 to R∼20,000. Lightweight silicon-carbide mirrors and sub-electron-noise CMOS detectors support replicated production.
Life 2.0 must address detector systematics, instrument stability, and stellar variability; rather than assuming these limitations disappear, it builds on calibration, detector-characterization, and data-analysis techniques advanced during the JWST era. The concept offers a scalable alternative to a monolithic 30-m-class space telescope and a staged pathway toward biosignature spectroscopy of nearby Earth-like planets.
Life 2.0 mission concept and simulated biosignature spectroscopy. The distributed array observes a common target with many one-meter telescope modules. The example spectra illustrate UV-optical atmospheric signatures and the simulated recovery of O₃, O₂, and H₂O after calibrated spectral co-addition.
Jian Ge (1), Zhangqi Dang (1), Ziru Zhang (1), Chenxu Gao (1), Shijie Ke (1), Ziyang Zhang (1), Rong Shu (2), Wen Chen (2), Jie Yin (3), Yunzhou Zhu (3), Leiming Lei (3), Zhongming Chen (3), Jiancheng Ji (4), Xiangsen Tian (4), Jun Yang (5), Xinyi Song (5), Rafael Luque (6), Enric Palle (7) ((1) Shanghai Astronomical Observatory, CAS, (2) Innovation Academy for Microsatellites, CAS, (3) Shanghai Institute of Ceramics, CAS, (4) Shanghai YUM Oe Tech Co., Ltd., (5) Peking University, (6) Instituto de Astrofisica de Andalucia, (7) Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias, Spain)
Comments: 12 pages, 7 figures. Presented at SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation 2026, Paper 14145-116; submitted to Proceedings of SPIE
Subjects: Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics (astro-ph.IM)
Cite as: arXiv:2608.04342 [astro-ph.IM] (or arXiv:2608.04342v1 [astro-ph.IM] for this version)
https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2608.04342
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Submission history
From: Zhangqi Dang
[v1] Wed, 5 Aug 2026 01:40:39 UTC (23,309 KB)
https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.04342
Astrobiology, Astronomy, Exoplanet,
