Origins Space Telescope: trades and decisions leading to the baseline mission concept

Abstract

The Origins Space Telescope will trace the history of our origins from the time dust and heavy elements permanently altered the cosmic landscape to present-day life. How did galaxies evolve from the earliest galactic systems to those found in the universe today? How do habitable planets form? How common are life-bearing worlds? We describe how Origins was designed to answer these alluring questions. We discuss the key decisions taken by the Origins mission concept study team, the rationale for those choices, and how they led through an exploratory design process to the Origins baseline mission concept. To understand the concept solution space, we studied two distinct mission concepts and descoped the second concept, aiming to maximize science per dollar and hit a self-imposed cost target. We report on the study approach and describe the concept evolution. The resulting baseline design includes a 5.9-m diameter telescope cryocooled to 4.5 K and equipped with three scientific instruments. The chosen architecture is similar to that of the Spitzer Space Telescope and requires very few deployments after launch. The cryo-thermal system design leverages James Webb Space Telescope technology and experience. © The Authors. Published by SPIE under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Unported License. Distribution or reproduction of this work in whole or in part requires full attribution of the original publication, including its DOI.

Infrared Ejecta and Cold Dust in the Young Supernova Remnant N132D

“…JWST is also important in unambiguously identifying dust features and understanding the dust composition. Most importantly, spectral coverage in far-IR with a higher spatial resolution, such as would be possible with the Origins Space Telescope (Leisawitz et al 2021), together with JWST, is vital in distinguishing between complex dust models, including multicomposition dust populations, where the shape of the continuum can constrain the composition and yield accurate dust masses. Detailed dust formation models for massive stars (>25 M e ) including SN Type Ib or Ic, and including all dust compositions, are also needed.…”

A Spectroscopic Study of Supernova Remnants with the Infrared Space Observatory

“…Follow-up observations with higher spectral resolution (e.g., the FIFI-LS on board SOF IA, or the proposed Origins Space Telescope (Leisawitz et al 2021)) are required to firmly detect the candidate broad lines in G54.1+0.3, RCW 103, E0102.2-7219, N132D, N49, and 0540-69.3. Furthermore, due to the large aperture (diameter = 80 ) of the LWS, constructing a detailed spatial distribution of ejecta emission in SNRs of our sample is not feasible.…”