LAFAYETTE, Colo. - A Saturn-200 minisatellite developed by Blue Canyon Technologies, RTX’s small satellite manufacturer and mission services provider, launched this week in support of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) Pandora mission, which will study the atmospheres of planets beyond the solar system and the activity of their host stars.
Pandora will conduct long-duration, multiwavelength observations of at least 20 exoplanets as they transit, or pass in front of, their stars. During these events, a small portion of starlight filters through a planet’s atmosphere, where gases such as hydrogen or water absorb specific wavelengths. Scientists analyze these signatures to determine atmospheric composition and assess planetary habitability.
"Pandora features the largest telescope payload ever integrated onto a Blue Canyon spacecraft," said Chris Winslett, general manager of Blue Canyon Technologies, which is based in Lafayette, Colo. "Our Saturn-class platform, equipped with advanced guidance, navigation, and control systems, will provide the precision pointing and stability critical to the success of this important mission."
Related: NASA selects RTX's Blue Canyon Technologies to provide CubeSat buses for PolSIR mission
Program background
Pandora is a NASA Science Mission Directorate program led by NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center and managed by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Blue Canyon provided the spacecraft bus, launch vehicle integration, and post-launch bus commissioning.
The mission was selected in 2021 under NASA’s inaugural call for Astrophysics Pioneer mission concepts. In addition to studying exoplanet atmospheres, Pandora is designed to separate planetary signals from variability in stellar surfaces, which can mimic or obscure atmospheric signatures.
"Pandora’s goal is to disentangle the atmospheric signals of planets and stars using visible and near-infrared light," said Elisa Quintana, Pandora’s principal investigator at NASA Goddard in Greenbelt, Md. "This information can help astronomers determine if detected elements and compounds are coming from the star or the planet."
Two CubeSats, BlackCAT and SPARCS, launched alongside Pandora as part of NASA’s Astrophysics CubeSat program. BlackCAT will study high-energy transient events such as gamma-ray bursts using X-ray detectors, while SPARCS will observe ultraviolet emissions from low-mass stars to better understand stellar activity and its impact on nearby planets.
