Paper 14145-249
Paper 14145-249
Habitable Worlds Observatory: exploratory analytic cases formulation and analysis
8 July 2026 • 17:30 - 19:00 CEST | Room B4-M3
Abstract
The Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO) is a NASA flagship space telescope designed to identify and characterize habitable zone exoplanets and advance our understanding of the universe through general astrophysics observations. Currently in pre-formulation, the project has defined Exploratory Analytic Cases (EACs) to address demanding science objectives while exploring challenging engineering parameters through architecture and trade space studies.
This paper describes the first three EACs and their lessons learned, discusses the integrated modeling pipeline, and shares key trade study results. These findings have guided EACs 4 and 5, which will further explore the trade space and prepare for the baseline design supporting the Mission Concept Review.
Presenter
NASA Goddard Space Flight Ctr. (United States)
Kuo-Chia (Alice) Liu joined NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in early 2003 and has since contributed to numerous flight projects in leadership and technical roles. Her experience includes serving as Jitter Lead on SDO, ACS Lead Engineer on GPM through CDR, GN&C System Engineer on Landsat-8, and Pointing Lead Engineer on NICER. She has also provided jitter consultation for many other NASA and external missions.
Currently, Dr. Liu serves as the Integrated Modeling and Error Budget Lead for the Roman Space Telescope Project and recently assumed the role of Mission System Engineer for the Habitable Worlds Observatory Technology Maturation Project. She holds B.S. and M.S. degrees in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Maryland, College Park, and a Ph.D. in Estimation and Control from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.