“Pandora: The Innovative Space Bus Set to Explore New Frontiers for Habitable Worlds”

The imaginative Magic School Bus allows its riders to discover scientific wonders, including dinosaurs. Now, a factual Space Bus known as Pandora is set to explore astronomical enigmas, such as exoplanets that revolve around faint stars.

The group that dreamed up and constructed Pandora — made up of scientists from entities including NASA, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, and the University of Arizona — declared its completion during a press conference hosted by the American Astronomical Society in Maryland.

The Pandora satellite will examine a minimum of 20 identified planets that are orbiting far-off stars. Its mission will focus on the composition of their atmospheres — particularly investigating for hazes, clouds, and water.

Understanding Exoplanets

Pandora is scheduled to commence its journey in the fall of 2025, although an official launch date has yet to be established. While the term “bus” is conventionally employed to describe any spacecraft designed for transporting scientific instruments, its application here is particularly fitting.

Similar to its animated equivalent, Pandora will primarily serve young researchers such as graduate students and research associates.

Young Researchers Driving Innovation

In light of its intended use, it is fitting that a younger scientist envisioned part of Pandora’s functionalities to address a data acquisition challenge faced by the James Webb Space Telescope.

Assessing the atmosphere of a planet transiting its host star can be challenging. Instruments must capture the light spectrum both prior to and during the planet’s transit across the star, according to Daniel Apai, a researcher at the University of Arizona who contributed to the engineering of some of Pandora’s instruments.

“When executed properly, the star’s influence can be negated,” Apai indicates. Only the spectral “imprint” of the planet’s atmosphere will persist.

Nonetheless, precision is crucial. Certain host stars do not always behave predictably. Variations or different markings on some stars’ surfaces may skew measurements.

Aiding the Webb Telescope

The Webb telescope can observe planets transiting stars for limited intervals. Pandora is engineered to take a more extended approach. Its instruments will concentrate on planets in transit around small stars for a longer duration than the Webb, and thereby assist in clarifying any inconsistencies with the Webb’s data. In 2018, Apai’s then graduate student Benjamin Rackham (currently a researcher at MIT) proposed this methodology.

“Pandora is set to assist in distinguishing what portion of the signal originates from the host star and what segment of the signal comes from the planet,” Apai explains. Essentially, while the Webb can capture a singular moment of a planet’s transit, Pandora’s capability is analogous to filming an entire motion picture.

Pandora stands out as it is among the inaugural projects emerging from the NASA Pioneers Program, which was established in 2020.

“Science advances rapidly, therefore NASA aimed to create a pathway to promptly respond to thrilling scientific inquiries,” Apai states.

The new initiative backs smaller undertakings that are less expensive than more extensive ones. They may entail greater risk, yet their costs are relatively modest — especially when contrasted with larger, pricier projects such as the Webb.

Read More: 6 Exoplanets in our Universe That Could Support Life Other Than Earth

University Mission Control

Additionally, in line with the Magic Bus concept of encouraging the involvement of younger individuals in science, Pandora’s mission control will be headquartered at the University of Arizona, where scientists will oversee it, instead of from one of NASA’s facilities.

“It’s quite exhilarating to bring mission operations so close to a university campus,” Apai remarks.

Apai, along with other astrophysicists and astronomy enthusiasts, can now commence the countdown to unveil more knowledge about exoplanets — including potentially habitable ones — found within our solar system.

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Before joining Discover Magazine, Paul Smaglik dedicated over 20 years as a science journalist, focusing on U.S. life science policies and global scientific career matters. He began his tenure in newspapers but transitioned to scientific journals. His articles have been showcased in publications such as Science News, Science, Nature, and Scientific American.