![The Pandora Observatory in stowed configuration is designed to meet the ESPA Grande volume limits. Three renders show the observatory from different angles with the solar array stowed. The spacecraft bus encompasses the lower section of the observatory, with the payload attached to the bus via an interface plate. -- [astro-ph.IM]](https://i0.wp.com/astrobiology.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/The-Pandora-SmallSat.jpg?fit=1200%2C677&ssl=1)
[astro-ph.IM] The Pandora SmallSat is a NASA flight project designed to study the atmospheres of exoplanets. Transmission spectroscopy of transiting exoplanets provides our best opportunity to identify the makeup of planetary atmospheres in the coming decade, and is a key science driver for HST and JWST.
Stellar photospheric inhomogeneity due to star spots, however, has been shown to contaminate the observed spectra in these high-precision measurements.
Pandora will address the problem of stellar contamination by collecting long-duration photometric observations sampled over a stellar rotation period with a visible-light channel and simultaneous spectra with a near-IR channel.
These simultaneous multiwavelength observations will constrain star spot covering fractions of exoplanet host stars, enabling star and planet signals to be disentangled in transmission spectra to then reliably determine exoplanet atmosphere compositions.
andora will observe exoplanets with sizes ranging from Earth-size to Jupiter-size and host stars spanning mid-K to late-M spectral types. Pandora was selected in early 2021 as part of NASA’s inaugural Astrophysics Pioneers Program.
Herein, we present an overview of the mission, including the science objectives, operations, the observatory, science planning, and upcoming milestones as we prepare for launch readiness in 2025.
The dual detector assemblies enable Pandora to operate the two channels simultaneously. Panel (a) shows the NIRDA which consists of a Teledyne H2RG sensor and SIDECAR ASIC, and panel (b) shows the VDA which includes an Excelitas pco.panda 4.2 CMOS sensor. The mechanical layout of the two detectors assemblies is shown in panel (c) along with the cryocooler which is used to maintain thermal control and stability. — [astro-ph.IM]
Trevor O. Foote, Elisa V. Quintana, Jessie L. Dotson, Knicole D. Colón, Thomas Barclay, Pete Supsinskas, Jordan Karburn, Dániel Apai, Christina Hedges, Benjamin V. Rackham, Jason F. Rowe, David Ciardi, Emily A. Gilbert, Natalie H. Allen, Jessie Christiansen, Néstor Espinoza, Nguyen Fuda, Aylin Garcia Soto, Thomas P. Greene, Kelsey Hoffman, Rae Holcomb, Benjamin J. Hord, Aishwarya R. Iyer, Aurora Y. Kesseli, Veselin B. Kostov, Nikole K. Lewis, Sarah E. Logsdon, Andrew W. Mann, Megan Mansfield, James Mason, Peter McGill, Julie Moquin, Brett M. Morris, Gregory Mosby, Susan E. Mullally, Elisabeth R. Newton, Joe P. Renaud, Yoav Rotman, Suman Saha, Joshua E. Schlieder, Luis Welbanks, Lindsey S. Wiser, Allison Youngblood, Robert T. Zellem
Comments: 9 pages, 4 figures; paper published as proceedings of the SPIE
Subjects: Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics (astro-ph.IM); Earth and Planetary Astrophysics (astro-ph.EP)
Cite as: arXiv:2610.30372 [astro-ph.IM](or arXiv:2610.30372v1 [astro-ph.IM] for this version)
https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2610.30372
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Related DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1117/12.3103034
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Submission history
From: Emily Gilbert
[v1] Wed, 21 Oct 2026 19:31:51 UTC (10,228 KB)
https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.30372
Astrobiology, Astronomy, Exoplanet, smallsat,
