NASA has selected proposals from BAE Systems, Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman to help develop technologies for future large space telescopes and lay the groundwork for the agency’s Habitable Worlds Observatory mission concept.
The Habitable Worlds Observatory is a space telescope concept that would search for and directly image potentially habitable planets around stars and study their atmospheres for evidence of life, NASA said Friday.
BAE Systems will conduct high-fidelity modeling and subsystem demonstrations to support the future development of “ultra-stable” optical systems under its Ultra-stable Telescope Research and Analysis – Critical Technologies project.
Lockheed’s Technology Maturation for Astrophysics Space Telescopes project aims to advance the integrated modeling infrastructure for navigating design interdependencies and comparing potential mission design options.
Meanwhile, Northrop will mature technologies that support telescope features as part of its proposal, titled “STABLE: Systems Technologies for Architecture Baseline.”
The selected projects will receive two-year, fixed-price contracts worth $17.5 million combined and will begin by the late summer.